Excerpt:

Ignoring the advice of its attorney, the Shasta County Elections commission voted 3-1 on Monday to send a recommendation to supervisors to limit the number of absentee ballots in elections and to return to one-day voting.

Before the vote, County Counsel Joseph Larmour told commissioners to table the issue.

“It would be my recommendation that this be taken at a different time and continued. The document as written is internally inconsistent and as a legal matter wouldn’t withstand a challenge. So, if we could edit this, then I could recommend that the board adopt it, but I couldn’t in its current format,” Larmour said.

The recommendation also was questioned by Shasta County Registrar of Voters Thomas Toller, who told the Record Searchlight before the meeting that it did not comply with state law.

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Registrar of Voters Toller told the Record Searchlight before Monday’s meeting that he spoke to the commission about the proposal and told the panel that he questions the legal basis to appoint election judges.

“But I told the commission that even if the legal issues were resolved, the practicality of trying to recruit and train that number of people ... between now and the (Nov. 5) election is simply not feasible,” Toller said. “I don’t have the budget for it. I don’t have the resources. There are too many other things that are absolutely essential (to get done) to conduct the election.”

Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, told the Record Searchlight that California already allows for election observers and there are specific rules in place for what they can and cannot do.

She said whatever Shasta County does, it must be within the confines of election law. (Full Story)