LAKEPORT, Calif. – After only four months on the job, Lake County’s registrar of voters has resigned.
Catherine McMullen is leaving the county’s employ next week, according to County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson.
McMullen’s resignation comes in the midst of the official canvass period for Northshore Fire Protection District’s Measure N fire tax – the first and only election she has overseen since taking over as registrar on June 24 – as well as the filing period for supervisorial candidates for seats 1, 4 and 5, which are up for election next year.
McMullen did not respond to Lake County News’ request for comment on her impending departure.
In a letter addressed to Board of Supervisors Chair Tina Scott dated Thursday, Nov. 7 – two days after Northshore voters had voted for Measure N – McMullen said she would be leaving her position as of Friday, Nov. 22.
“While this was not an easy decision to make, it is the best decision moving forward for myself and my family. I wish you, the Board of Supervisors, county staff, and the Registrar of Voters team all the best,” McMullen wrote.
“If I can be of any assistance during the transition, please do not hesitate to ask. As long as I serve as the Registrar of Voters, I remain committed to the voters of Lake County,” McMullen concluded.
The Measure N official canvass period, at the end of which the election results are certified, runs until Dec. 5. A report released by McMullen on Friday indicated that she had less than 50 ballots yet to count or check before finalizing the results.
McMullen was born and raised in Lake County, graduating from Lower Lake High School. She moved back to Lake County – along with her husband and their two children – from Oregon; she had most recently worked for the Multnomah County Elections in Portland.
During her time on the job in Lake County, McMullen was to have hired a permanent deputy registrar. That job has been held temporarily by Marcy Harrison, a County Administrative Office staffer who the board voted in April to place in the job on an interim basis, as Lake County News has reported.
At the same time as McMullen is preparing to depart, Harrison is reported to be moving to a job in the County Auditor-Controller’s Office, leaving the leadership of the elections department uncertain.
Now, with next year’s local, state and federal elections looming – and those elections pushed up due to California’s Super Tuesday presidential primary on March 3 – it will be up to the Board of Supervisors to decide what actions to take with regard to the Registrar of Voters Office’s leadership.
Huchingson did not respond to Lake County News’ specific inquiry about the status of the search for a permanent deputy registrar, but gave a more general reply.
“During the upcoming agenda, the Board will discuss next steps for the Elections office and will provide direction to staff,” Huchingson told Lake County News in an email.
A department in transition
For the past year, the leadership of the Registrar of Voters Office – which had been one of the most stable in the county for decades – has been a matter of increasing concern.
Diane Fridley, who had been the county of Lake for 41 years, retired as registrar of voters at the end of December.
Two months before Fridley’s intended retirement, Huchingson unsuccessfully proposed to the Board of Supervisors that the educational requirements for the registrar of voters job be changed to require a bachelor’s degree rather than allow for experience, as Lake County News has reported.
Such a change would have disqualified the entire registrar’s staff, including then-Deputy Registrar Maria Valadez, who had been with the department for nearly 30 years and was anticipated by many to be the next registrar of voters.
Ultimately, Fridley warned against the change and the board didn’t make it, following up in December by appointing Valadez to act as interim registrar after Fridley’s retirement.
However, the board chose to do a six-month best practices study before recruiting a full-time registrar and so didn’t offer Valadez the job on a permanent basis.
In February, Valadez left the county of Lake to take the assistant county clerk-recorder-registrar of voters with the county of Mendocino.
Her departure, coupled with Fridley’s, meant that the Registrar of Voters Office lost seven decades of experience in just a matter of months.
As Valadez left, the board in February appointed Huchingson interim registrar of voters and opened an initial, unsuccessful recruitment for the registrar’s job. A second recruitment was opened in March.
In March, the board also voted to purchase new election equipment, and followed up on April 2 by voting to appoint Harrison as interim deputy registrar.
The new election equipment was used for the first time in the spring for the Lakeport Fire Protection District’s successful fire Measure M.
In last week’s Northshore Fire election, McMullen’s office posted initial absentee results on Tuesday night but waited a day to publish an update on precinct numbers, a break with established practice of giving an overall preliminary count on election night.
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Registrar of voters submits resignation; supervisors to discuss next steps
- Elizabeth Larson
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