BOS Tentatively Accepts $1.5M Grant for Shasta County Elections
The Board of Supervisors voted to accept $1.5M in grant funds to the Shasta County Elections Department, given that the funds be used exclusively for the purchase of a new building for the department.
Shasta County Elections has been offered a grant for $1.5 million by the Center for Tech and Civic Life. Shasta County Elections was selected as one of ten counties, out of 93 applicants nationwide, to participate in a program called the Alliance: Centers for Elections Excellence, in 2022. This program gives the department access to additional resources and services, at no cost to the county, for continued excellence in the administration of elections. As a result of Shasta County's participation in the program, the department was offered the $1.5 million grant.
The primary conditions of the grant are that the funding cannot supplant regular departmental budgeted funds, and that the funds must be used for election administration. Shasta County Elections’ intention is to use the bulk of this grant as seed money to purchase a county-owned facility for the county clerk/elections department. Current records obtained from our own files and with the assistance of the county Auditor reveal over $3 million spent on facility rent over the past 30 years.
As a department that primarily depends upon the County’s general fund to operate, it would behoove the county budget generally to house the department in county owned space. County administration over the past 20 years has repeatedly stated that moving the department into county owned space was a long-term goal.
There is some controversy about private funding to publicly run election departments. The 2020 grant making performed by CTCL generated some controversy and has resulted in some states making donations and grant making of this kind illegal in the intervening three years. Opponents of private funding for election administration appear to remain skeptical of the program’s true intent, but were unable to substantiate these allegations with any factual findings, criminal proceedings or prosecutions, or fruitful investigations in local jurisdictions that received this type of funding.
The Elections Department felt strongly that it was the department’s obligation to present this choice to the Board of Supervisors given the large amount of funds offered. Additionally, County Administrative Policy 6-101, Shasta County Contracts Manual, section 5.6.4 requires the Board to approve a revenue agreement in this dollar amount.
