Shasta County recall election gets tighter, returns show support for Supervisor Kevin Crye
The election to recall board supervisor Kevin Crye in Shasta County is extremely close, according to Tuesday afternoon’s updated election returns from the county election office.
After early returns showed more than half of voters supporting the recall, support for Crye has jumped ahead by a narrow margin, with 50.23% of voters supporting him keeping his seat and 49.77% voting to recall him.
Crye became a polarizing figure in the county when he aligned himself with far-right board members who sought to pivot the county’s voting system from Dominion Voting Systems to a manual hand tally, which election experts and county clerks have said is an outdated and error-prone system. The decision inspired a new law, AB 969, which prevents county boards from scrapping their voting systems if they don’t have a state or federally approved voting system ready to replace the one that already exists.
Crye, along with fellow board members Patrick Jones and Chris Kelstrom, wanted to get rid of Dominion amid unfounded claims that the company was behind former President Donald Trump’s election loss in 2020 — such claims cost Fox News $787 million in a defamation case won by Dominion, but did not deter the Shasta board from remaining skeptical.
Crye came under fire even further when he aligned himself with Trump loyalist and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell last year. Lindell has also become embattled in legal issues related to unfounded claims against Dominion.
Moderate Republicans came together last year to organize the recall effort, and routinely attend the increasingly contentious board meetings to voice their disapproval during public comment.
Despite the recall effort and vocal disapproval, the board elected Crye board chair for 2024.
Jones, who is running for reelection, may also lose his seat on the board.
He received just 38.50% of votes, while his opponent, Matt Plummer, received 61.50% as of Tuesday afternoon.
This story was originally published March 6, 2024 at 11:22 AM.
