Photos by Paul Critz On its face, the Del Norte County Civil Grand Jury’s report on Alissia Northrup’s office might appear mundane. Unlike other agencies the citizen-led watchdog group delved into, there were no alleged violations of state law to investigate nor were they acting upon a citizen complaint. Del Norte’ county clerk-recorder said she invited the Civil Grand Jury to observe the counting process for mail-in ballots on Nov. 5, 2024 “I wanted to make sure I had someone completely unbiased, someone there that could report out if they saw anything they thought was wrong or inappropriate,” Northrup told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday. “It’s another layer of transparency.” In her nearly four-term career serving as county clerk, Northrup said the 2024 presidential election was the first time she invited members of the Civil Grand Jury to observe the ballot-counting process. In the Grand Jury’s 2024-25 final report released July 10, Foreperson Christine Cilley mentioned Northrup’s invitation to observe her staff on election night. “Although recent election cycles have been divisive,” Cilley wrote, “it was reassuring to witness this process, ask questions, ensure that our votes were counted according to the law and provide a report for our community to review.” Northrup invited two members of the Grand Jury to her office at the Flynn Center and took them to a back office where ballot counting was taking place. According to the report, Northrup was present as were two of her staff members. Representatives of the Del Norte Republican Party and the Del Norte Democratic Party were present as was Triplicate editor Roger Gitlin. According to the report, mail-in ballots were submitted via a drop box and are checked to verify signatures and addresses via the voter database. If a ballot is missing a signature, elections office staff send a form to the address asking the ballot’s owner to provide their signature. “It is required that every attempt must be made to get the signature and update the database if necessary,” the report states. “This process to verify the signatures is done daily until all mail-in ballots are received.” County elections staff accept ballots up until 8 p.m. on election night. They’re counted and processed via the Dominion Democracy Suite and are retained for 22 months before they’re destroyed. The Grand Jury found that the process its members observed was thorough and “strictly followed by all mandated rules and regulations.” The ballot-counting was also transparent and “completely non-partisan.” Two weeks before the big night, Northrup spoke to then-Redwood Voice director Paul Critz, voicing her concern about the skepticism surrounding the validity of elections in the United States. “It makes me sad,” Northrup told Critz. “I do love this, I love the job, I love the process, I know the process works. It just makes me sad there are so many people that are buying into that, just willing to take what they’re hearing and be so disillusioned and disappointed with their country and with the system, because I think we have a system that works. I think it’s probably the best system in the world.” On Wednesday, when asked if she felt the same contention surrounding Del Norte County elections that other communities have faced, Northrup said some made offhand remarks at polling places, but it was nothing awful. Northrup said she felt local elections went so smoothly because of California’s election laws. The Golden State allows people to register to vote and then cast provisional ballots the same day. This means that poll workers didn’t have to turn anyone away. In April, Northrup spoke with Redwood Voice’s Aisling Bludworth about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known as the SAVE Act. Introduced in Congress, this piece of legislation would require voters to appear in person at an elections office to present documentary proof of citizenship when submitting their voter registration forms. If poll workers had to turn people away on election day, if someone had not been allowed to vote, Northrup said, “it probably would have been a different story.” In its report, the Grand Jury recommended the Del Norte County Elections Office continue to “follow all mandated rules and regulations, execute the process in a transparent and non-partisan way and support observation from political parties and community members at large.” Whether or not the Grand Jury chooses to sit in on the ballot-counting process in future elections is up to them, Northrup said. “There will always be an open invitation here,” she said. In addition to observing the elections process, the Del Norte County Civil Grand Jury investigated the Crescent City Harbor District and Del Norte Unified School District. Its members also toured the Del Norte County Jail and Alder Conservation Camp as part of its state mandate to “inquire into the condition and management of public prisons.” 2024 2025 Grand Jury Final ReportDownload