Several School Board Races Not Even On November Ballot

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, November 4, 2024…

• In recent years, you’ve likely heard news stories about fiery school board meetings. But most often, they’re pretty routine. In the November election, there are several school board races on the ballot. But many are not, because the races have not attracted more than one candidate.
• Shasta County in far Northern California has been the epicenter of election denialism in the state, and the tension is taking a toll on election workers. Officials have confirmed that 10 out of 21 workers with the Shasta County Registrar of Voters have quit as of last week.

Only One San Benito County School Board Race Is On The Ballot. Why? 

Aromas-San Juan is a small school district located primarily in San Benito County. Over the past 20 years, enrollment has declined by 25%. Last year, there were just under 1,000 students in its three schools.

Three out of five seats in the district have terms that expire this year, but trustee Dan Kerbs and another board member are not running for re-election. Across San Benito County, 26 school board races are up for election. Local voters wouldn’t know it, though, because only one of those races is on the ballot. The rest are uncontested or, in some cases, no one is running at all.

To be clear, uncontested races, especially for school board and special district seats, are common across the Monterey Bay area and in many other parts of the state and country. But 25 uncontested races out of 26 is striking. “We actually have historically had fairly competitive races,” said Casey Powers, the sole Aromas-San Juan trustee who is running for re-election this year, albeit unopposed. She first ran six years ago. “Mine was actually one of the first ones, in 2018, that was uncontested. So 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 all were uncontested and that was actually really rare,” she said.

Election Workers Quit In Shasta As Self-Appointed Observers Roam Office

Election results in Shasta County have come under question in recent years, as the Northern California county has been at the epicenter of the state’s election denial movement since 2020.

Last year, three members of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted to cancel the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems. That’s the company that was at the center of a lot of the conspiracy theories around the 2020 election. And they voted to hand count ballots instead, although that decision was overridden by a new law in Sacramento.  

Officials have confirmed that 10 out of 21 workers with the Shasta County Registrar of voters have quit as of last week. Tanner Johnson is one of those who recently quit. “A lot of people who have left just because it’s not worth it,” he said. “I make $19.64 an hour. I’m not going to be a martyr for $19.60 an hour.”

Voters are legally allowed to enter the office and observe the election process. Johnson said a lot of them, however, are on edge and “very angry.” “They want to catch us in a lie, so they’ll try to trick you into saying something,” he said. “A lot of times they’ll be secretly videotaping you or recording you.”