Election Forum at Sierra College
The Sierra College Foundation hosted a forum on February 23, 2024 featuring Nevada County’s Registrar of Voters Natalie Adona, who won election to this position in 2022.
The audience of approximately 25 to 30 people was welcomed by Judy East, the Chair of the Sierra College Foundation. Before any other introductions, a “Land Acknowledgement” was recited by East, who then went on to explain that the Sierra College Foundation spends $20,000 each year in support of students and programs.
She introduced Terry McAteer as the host, in place of previously scheduled Cheryl Dell, former publisher of the Sacramento Bee, who was unable to attend.
McAteer first asked Adona how she got into the elections business. Adona explained that most people in this field begin as temporary workers at the polls or answering telephones. While a student at UC Berkeley, Adona volunteered as a poll worker and later moved on to training poll workers in San Francisco.
72 different ballots
California is an “All Mail” voting state. Adona assured the audience that all steps were taken to make sure that the Nevada County voter rolls were accurate by contacting, usually by postcards, any questionable names on the voter registration rolls. They also receive information from the Department of Motor Vehicles. In person voting is still allowed with specific rules and time frames. Nevada County hosts nine voting locations for this purpose.
Adona indicated that her office works collaboratively with the California Secretary of State. California is a “bottom up” state, meaning that each county is able to select their voting machines and the appearance of their ballot, so each county’s ballots may look a bit different. The 58 counties have a great deal of independence from the Secretary of State’s office.
In response to a question about the difficulty of running a presidential primary election, Adona pointed out that the two major parties have different rules. Only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in the Republican primary race, although they can vote for all other offices on the ballot, regardless of party affiliation. Registered Democrats have an open ballot of all candidates in all races, with the exception of the Republican party presidential candidates.
For the 2024 primary there are 72 different ballots printed for Nevada County residents. Local measures such as tax propositions currently on the ballot are limited to residents within the city limits for each measure. GOP Central Committee candidates appear only on ballots for District 4 voters. There are other similar distinctions which require the need for 72 different ballots.
McAteer pointed out that Placer County has complained of a shortage of workers, and wondered aloud if that might be due to intimidation from the public. Adona answered that Nevada County was not having a problem obtaining workers, and in fact, many previous workers have returned. There were some poll workers who were harassed by members of the public in the past who are reluctant to return, but there is a large pool of returning and new workers from which to choose. Adona indicated that Placer County is having a difficult time finding workers in Tahoe, probably because the weather has produced a good ski season - the preferred activity for many who worked with the county registrar in the past.
Mail-in voting, In-person voting, and election integrity
In regard to mail-in vs in-person voting, Adona reminded the audience that when former Registrar Greg Diaz made the decision to opt into the all-mail ballot program, 80% of Nevada County residents were already permanent mail-in voters. Now that all-mail voting is required across the state, Adona has found that 90% - 95% of Nevada County votes are received via the US Postal Service or Drop Boxes. About 4% to 8% of citizens choose to vote in person. A citizen can now bring an already completed ballot into the Registrar’s Office or polling place and scan the completed ballot into a machine.
In regard to signature verification, Adona described a process whereby ballot envelopes received via mail or drop boxes were first scanned by a machine. Approximately 50% of these ballot envelopes are rejected by the machine, at which time two persons review each envelope’s signature visually. If a serious mismatch is noted the voter is notified and allowed a chance to “cure” their signature. All workers are trained in signature verification.
McAteer said that during the last 10 years more people have become concerned about the validity of the vote counting process. Adona responded that anyone is free to come and watch the process at any time. She added that a 2020 Grand Jury report was very favorable toward the election’s office. Adona said there were a few regular watchers, mostly from organizations such as the Election Integrity Project or people from campaigns or major party committees. She said she is happy to have people come in to view and ask questions and they should not see themselves as an intrusion. There is a Live Feed video at all times the office is open which can be viewed on YouTube at any time.
McAteer asked Adona if there has been much electioneering or intimidation. Adona indicated that most electioneering is passive and consists of people in hats or t-shirts promoting a candidate, who most often don’t even realize that is unlawful. A few instances have occurred in which drop boxes were being blocked or people were using megaphones to express their message. There are “roving” officials within the election office staff who can intervene if there are any problems, as well as a great deal of coordination with local law enforcement officials.
McAteer inquired if other jurisdictions were having these sorts of problems, specifically Shasta County. Adona explained that the Board of Supervisors of Shasta County had deemed that the county would not use voting machines, but rather would hand count all votes. This matter was disputed, and a legal decision was issued that machines must be used to count the vote. The Registrar in Shasta County is retiring for health/stress reasons and the Board of Supervisors will be selecting her replacement.
Asked about her involvement in national issues relating to her official position, Adona indicated that she sits on a number of advisory boards including those for the Registrar of Voters state association, the “Face of Democracy” campaign, the Bi-partisan Policy Center, and a number of other committees and boards. She also discussed a committee on ethics, which was referenced in an op-ed written by Adona and published in the Union newspaper on this date (February 23).
What keeps you up at night?
McAteer asked Adona about her stress level, and she responded, “so far so good, it’s like water off a duck”. Not everyone is going to love you, she said, but that has no bearing on the level of service provided – although staff do respond to kindness.
Adona reported that Yuba City’s Registrar’s Office recently received a suspicious package they believed might have been laced with a harmful substance such as fentanyl. Law enforcement was contacted, and the package tested negative. There have been some similar occurrences around the country, so the Nevada County office has collaborated with local law enforcement to create contingency plans for what to do should a suspicious package or envelope be delivered.
When McAteer asked Adona “what keeps you up at night?”, she replied that things have been going fairly smoothly so her greatest concerns are about how her staff holds up when confronted by a frustrated citizen.
When will election results be released?
McAteer asked for an explanation about the length of time to count votes and release results. The law allows election staff to begin processing mail in ballots as early as 29 days prior to election day. Mail-in ballots have many steps to authenticate before the actual votes are counted, such as verifying signatures and assuring the voter did not vote in another jurisdiction, so the earlier the ballots are returned the earlier these steps can be taken and the faster the count can be completed. Each county has 30 days before certification of the vote is demanded and Nevada County is usually able to accomplish this within two and a half weeks.
A new mail sorting machine is helping to speed the process up. The machine is able to do the first review of signatures as well as slice open the envelope of those ballots which have been verified. All machines are tested for accuracy before any votes are counted. In addition, 1% of each precinct’s votes are checked by human tally and compared to the machine county for accuracy, which is part of the post-election audit. Natalie Adona indicated she has no concerns about the accuracy of the electronic voting machines used in Nevada County.
Once the election is over, ballots from a national election must be retained and stored for 22 months and those for state or local elections must be retained for 6 months.
Asked about any special concerns about the 2024 election and/or controversies, Adona said “we can only plan for what we can control. We can’t control trial dates or political rhetoric or surprises.”
Recent court case
McAteer inquired of Adona about the recent court case in which a judgement was issued against the county. Adona explained that the case was about a “PRA Writ” which requested documents and that her office was unclear about whether this could create “unauthorized access”. She reviewed the request with the Secretary of State’s office and was told that there could be a security issue, so she denied the request. Adona felt that the law was unclear, but a legal judgment was made that the documents could and should be produced, with anything that could be perceived as providing unauthorized access redacted. She assured the audience that future requests will be accommodated with proper redactions made.
Ballot propositions
Although there is only one California ballot proposition on the March ballot, Adona said to expect at least seven or eight or more on the November ballot. For more in-depth information about all ballot propositions, a voter information guide is published locally and by the state of California in which the full text of the measure, as well as the arguments for and opposed to the measure are generally published. Adona recommended Ballotpedia as a non-partisan reference for ballot information.
Terry McAteer ended the forum by asking Natalie Adona what she does for fun and indicating that she was heading to Truckee to set up their in-person voting area.