Another extremist-driven California county recall is just getting started. Here’s where

A successful Shasta County recall election backed by militia members, far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists looks a lot like what’s happening in another north state county..

In Nevada County, a group of activists allege that officials have overstepped their authority when it comes to COVID-19 contact tracing, lockdowns and other public health measures that “violated religious freedoms and individual liberty.”

They’re seeking to recall the five-member board for committing “crimes against humanity.”

Nevada County officials say the group has already grown so hostile, elections officials were forced to close their office last month.

When supporters went to the clerk’s lobby to check on the status of their petition, they refused to wear masks, pushed an employee and “stormed our office,” the county said in a statement. Citing “security concerns,” officials closed the elections office lobby until further notice.

Natalie Adona, the assistant clerk-recorder/registrar of voters, told The Sacramento Bee that the county had a meeting two days earlier with federal and state officials about physical security in elections offices. Nevada County is part of a pilot program for identifying safety threats and solutions facing elections officials.

“Quite the timing,” Adona quipped.

She said the incident brought to light “security elements we need to address before we reopen.”

“It was frustrating,” Adona said, referring to both the physical confrontation and the risks her employees have taken on, many of whom have vulnerable loved ones at home. “I’m trying to make sure my people feel safe coming to work and that they feel protected.”

Adona said her staff approved the recall petition a day before their deadline. Proponents now have 120 days to get thousands of signatures from registered voters in order to bring the measure to a countywide vote.

Recall supporters say county officials have mischaracterized what happened at the office building. It was one of the recall proponents who was hurt when an employee slammed the door shut, said Calvin Clark, a recall organizer. He said they are considering legal action against the county.

County supervisors were part of a corrupt system under Dr. Anthony Fauci that is forcing a dangerous and untested vaccine on the masses, refusing to treat patients with ivermectin, and stripping them of their liberties by monitoring them for contact tracing, Clark said. Meanwhile, supervisors look the other way when it comes to sex trafficking, even while “perversion is on the rise.”

Clark took exception to a reporter’s question about recall supporters being lumped in with conspiracy theorists or the far right.

“People think, and they could be misled, that this is some kind of extremist program,” Clark said. “It’s not. It’s the furthest thing from it.”

Collecting the thousands of required signatures to qualify a recall petition for a vote is no easy feat. But if a local campaign can do so, they stand a decent chance of removing the official from office, said Joshua Spivak, a recall researcher and senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College.

“It is no surprise when a recall election succeeds in California,” said Spivak. What is noteworthy, though, is that we’re hearing about them more because of the issues that are motivating signature gathering, namely issues around masks, vaccines and “critical race theory.”

With Shasta County’s election in the books, the only other ongoing recall vote in California is unfolding in San Francisco.

Voters there will decide this week whether to remove three school board members in a recall born out of frustration about pandemic-related school closures and other controversies that rocked the district. Chief among them: A controversial vote to rename 44 schools that took place at the same time parents were demanding a return to in-person education.

As KQED put it: “Depending on the take, the recall is a coup attempt by a mob of venture capitalists and moneyed moms; a righteous crusade to save the city’s marginalized children run by a bootstrapping crew of political newbies; or a misguided effort to exorcise the demons of the last two years.”

The deadline to vote in the San Francisco recall is Feb. 15.

This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.