The future direction of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors remained unclear Wednesday with numerous ballots from Tuesday’s primary still to be counted in two key races.
Despite an early lead by Redding Councilwoman Erin Resner in the District 1 race, incumbent Supervisor Kevin Crye still has plenty of time to catch-up and send the race to a Nov. 3 runoff, pitting the two candidates in a new rematch.
Also undecided is the District 5 race, which has seen Anderson Councilman Mike Gallagher maintain a moderate but steady lead over incumbent Supervisor Chris Kelstrom. Both candidates have far outnumbered votes for the other challenger in that race, retired business owner Gary Oxley. That contest, too, appeared headed for a runoff in the general election.
County election workers have more votes to count over the coming days, including vote-by-mail and provisional ballots. Officials as of the afternoon on June 3 had made no announcements when they expected to release the next wave of vote results.
The unofficial results from all 68 precincts doing partial reporting, released around 3:30 a.m. on June 3, showed Resner in the lead with 53.82%, Crye in second with 38.91%, and a third challenger and local political activist, Richard Gallardo, in last with 7.27%.
Resner reacts to early voting results in Shasta District 1 race
If Resner were to hold her lead, she would be elected District 1 supervisor without the need for a runoff election.
“I am feeling hopeful and the results so far seem positive and I am looking forward to the day those numbers feel more concrete. But I am excited about what we have seen so far,” Resner said Wednesday morning.
To win, candidates need to receive over 50% of votes cast. If no candidate wins, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election on Nov. 3.
Asked if she feels confident she will avoid a runoff, Resner said she is not a statistics expert.
“But those who are statistics people (say) that it is looking positive and I am hopeful that we will avoid a runoff in November,” she added.
What happened in 2022?
But if past races have any bearing on the current race, there are still thousands of votes to count, and thus many opportunities for the tides to turn.
Crye, when asked via text how he was feeling about the race on June 3, responded with a thumbs-up emoji and had no other comment.
Gallardo was not able to be reached for comment before deadline on June 3.
In the November 2022 runoff, Crye beat Resner by 90 votes. In the primary that year, Resner beat Crye by 480 votes but after days of ballot counting by elections staff, she failed to get more than 50% of the vote.
So far, 4,073 votes have been counted in the June 2026 primary. In the 2022 primary, 8,350 votes were cast in District 1.
Resner is currently leading in most District 1 precincts, but Crye is leading in a southern precinct which includes the Mistletoe Lane, Hilltop Drive and Bechelli Lane neighborhoods. He also leads in the geographically largest precinct, which stretches from Keswick Dam to the mountains west of the city of Shasta Lake.
Gallagher reacts to early voting results in Shasta District 5 race
The most recent results from the District 5 race showed Gallagher in the lead with 48.88%, Kelstrom in second with 41.35% and Oxley in last with 9.78%.
“We are hopeful, we are still hopeful. I think quite a few ballots haven’t been counted, so we are gong to wait and watch and see what happens, like everybody else in Shasta County,” Gallagher said.
If Gallagher and Kelstrom were to maintain their current percentages of the vote, the two would move on to a runoff in November. Gallagher still hopes to avoid a runoff.
“We are hoping for a win. We would like to get to work. Like I’ve said many times, there’s lots of work to do; we would like to get after it,” Gallagher said.
Kelstrom and Oxley were not able to be reached for comment before deadline on June 3.
Gallagher is leading the polls in most precincts within, and to the west of the city of Anderson, while Kelstrom has a strong hold over the two easternmost and less populated District 5 precincts.
So far, 4,000 votes have been counted in the current District 5 race.
In the District 5 race in the 2022 primary, 9,184 votes were cast. Kelstrom eventually beat Baron Browning in a November 2022 runoff by 445 votes.
Drew Askeland covers Redding and Shasta County government issues, as well as anything else that needs reporting for the Record Searchlight and USA Today Network. Reach him at drew.askeland@redding.com or (530) 225-8247. Please subscribe today to support our newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Uncertainty lingers in Shasta County supervisor races
Reporting by Drew Askeland and David Benda, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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By Drew Askeland and David Benda, Redding Record Searchlight | USA TODAY Network
