It wasn’t my idea of a good time on a Saturday night to attend an election-fraud symposium that featured renowned election-denier Dr. Douglas Frank, hosted by District 4 Supervisor and Chair Patrick Jones. Saturday, my wife and I made an exception and did exactly that, all for the sake of gaining a better understanding of Shasta County’s tumultuous politics.
As we made our way toward the event hall inside the Red Lion Inn in Redding, we had the distinct impression that we were unwanted there. Among the first local extremists to greet us was Richard Gallardo, local Second-Amendment activist and common fixture/self imposed security at similar events.
Richard Gallardo works security detail as Kevin Crye’s assistant Carolyn Gomes listens to a woman at a Kevin Crye townhall meeting held earlier this year.
Although for weeks Jones has promoted his Doug Frank event as free to the public, a table outside the event hall encouraged donations. I was unsure about the appropriate amount of money to give to an election-denier, so my wife and I decided to forgo the voluntary donation altogether.
Shasta County Chair/Supervisor Patrick Jones’ Saturday townhall meeting at the Red Lion Inn in Redding featured Dr. Douglas Frank.
Prior to entering the venue we were approached by Lori Barclay Jones, who’s married to Supervisor Jones. She immediately recognized us as frequent speakers at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meetings, and explained that although media was not allowed at this event, she would allow us to enter. She said that if we wanted more information, it would be posted online later. She added that no videotaping or photography would be allowed, which eventually seemed a moot point since the entire event was later broadcast on rumble.
Despite the rules laid out for us by Jones’ wife, I witnessed a number of attendants taking video and photographs throughout the session. Even so, I decided it best to follow the rules. After all, I didn’t want to make waves at an event I was “allowed” to attend; even though ostensibly it was open to the public.
I asked if taking notes was acceptable, to which Jones’ wife said, “absolutely”.
So, armed with my trusty Moleskine notebook, I entered what I can only describe as the Red Lion’s Den.
Benjamin Nowain’s Moleskine notebook was allowed inside the Doug Frank event Saturday.
As I passed through the threshold of the event hall, the hallway displayed a variety of political signage that endorsed Patrick Jones for re-election for District 4, and Win Carpenter for District 3, and Dan Sloan for District 2. These election-promotion materials were offered free to attendees.
This was noteworthy, because I was under the impression that this was a public talk about election security, not a political event. The irony wasn’t lost on me that each of the candidates touted that evening would need to go through the same elections system that speaker Frank insisted was fraudulent.
I did a double take of the evening’s event poster and confirmed that it was indeed billed as “Chair Jones’ Townhall”, not a political event.
The room was sparsely populated. Out of the roughly 200 seats available, approximately half were empty, a far cry from Chair Jones’ previously predicted “standing room only” gathering. Scanning the room, I recognized many Board of Supervisors meeting regulars, such as Lori Bridgeford, Jon Knight, Carolyn Gomes, Patty Plumb, Lyndia Kent, Mark Kent, and Mike Publouski, among others.
As we waited for the presentation to begin, the room was abuzz with political hobnobbing. We were passed a petition that demanded elections be hand-counted in one day, in-person, without mail-in voting, all of which pretty much violates California’s current elections codes.
Later, Frank posted on social media a photo of Patty Plumb holding one of the petitions.
Patrick Jones opened the meeting with an introduction that essentially parroted the usual election-fraud talking points, such as assertions that investigations of recent elections have “uncovered a lot of things” and “our liberty was at stake” with regard to election security.
Shasta County Chair/District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones introduces Doug Frank to a sparsely attended event Saturday at the Red Lion Inn in Redding.
Jones’ statements were spoken with the conviction of a 4-year-old describing a ghost he had seen at home, without any specificities or evidence. Actually, since that’s what “Dr. Frank” had been invited to prove, I wondered if perhaps I was being too hard on Patrick. (Spoiler: I wasn’t).
Among the most egregious things Jones said was that as of the last election, “We finally have a conservative majority”. This was false, since anyone paying attention to Shasta County politics can attest that we have had a conservative board for many, many years now.
As is one of Jones’ common requests, he asked all the veterans in the room to stand, to which about 10 people responded and stood up. A well-deserved round of applause was given to the veterans, after which the audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
A personal memory/observation: Several years ago, in this very Red Lion room, I had attended the Redding Comic Con, where people came dressed in costume as their favorite comic book heroes. This came to mind as I saw Douglas Frank approach the microphone, attired in a gray suit with his signature bowtie. Frank clearly has a brand, perhaps as an elections superhero who also compares himself to Jesus, the way Frank travels near and far to spread the gospel of so-called election fraud.
Election denier Dr. Doug Frank speaks before the Shasta County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 13.
Frank thanked Jones for his introduction, and delivered a gift to Jones; a coffee mug that says, “Follow the Data” with a picture of Frank and his bowtie. A fitting gift, indeed.
“Dr.” Frank started by explaining how he could afford to travel the country giving speeches, something I’d not previously thought about, but was suddenly genuinely curious. According to Frank, he doesn’t have a mortgage, and his wife works (what a catch). He claimed he’s visited nearly 800 counties to speak. In fact, he’d just returned from his latest gig in Alaska. He said that number didn’t include “private” coordination meetings, such as one Frank said he’d attended earlier that day with several “patriots”. Frank’s explanation still didn’t didn’t fully explain how he could afford the extensive expenses involved — air fare, lodging, food, etc. Perhaps, in part, that’s what the “donations” are for, as well as Jones’ expenses, such as the Red Lion room rental.
Frank quickly delivered his speech that was heavily laced with military analogies. He said that every state, county, or city has a “beachhead”, and that Shasta County was one of the state’s most influential, inspirational beachheads.
Of course, a beachhead is a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a landing beach by sea, and begins to defend the area until other reinforcements arrive.
Frank made no apologies for using terms of war to describe the country’s state of elections.
He went on to say, “You don’t win with evidence,” something I found to be contradictory to his “follow the facts” mantra. He then likened himself to an arms dealer providing the roadmap to fight this war against the state and federal governments. Frank’s speech seemed more about preaching to the choir about election fraud, and less about presenting facts and/or evidence to substantiate his claims. He used many personal details and anecdotes to ingratiate himself to his audience, such as telling about how his parents met while attending Shasta College, and even offered that he may have been conceived in Shasta County.
Frank spent the greatest portion of his talk describing what he believed to be voter-rolls manipulation. Some of his displayed statistics might have seemed credible, until one realizes that the information Frank provides is an extreme simplification of the numbers. It doesn’t take into account the fact that around 2008 things like social media and Barack Obama’s campaign — things that really galvanized the public — could account for society’s wide shift in voting patterns.
Frank claimed that he can predict voting patterns based on the fact that they have been compromised for years. During Frank’s presentation his “evidence” included sets of purged, rebuilt voter rolls by number. On its face these slides could look like something, but with enough scrutiny his allegations of voter-roll fraud falls apart. Plus, consider the fact that if this is all about voter rolls, then why are we focusing so much on machines? Franks entire speech felt like a solution in search of a problem.
Frank didn’t conceal his disdain for Cathy Darling Allen, Shasta County’s Registrar of Voters. On two separate occasions during Jones’ townhall, Frank made comments that alleged Darling Allen did not understand election math. He even told the audience members to ask Darling Allen for results from the 2020 election, so they can harass her about explaining those results. It sounded as if one of Frank’s goals was to make life more difficult for Darling Allen.
The biggest revelation at the event was when Frank said that incidents of election fraud in Shasta County will be presented at each Board of Supervisors meetings “every two weeks”. This seemed like a political move; conveniently timely for Patrick Jones’ upcoming District 4 re-election campaign.
Frank spent a good portion of the evening instructing the audience to disregard a man he viewed as his opponent — Justin Grimmer — who’s effectively debunked Frank and other election-deniers.
Stanford election fraud scholar Justin Grimmer.
When it was mentioned that Grimmer may be speaking at a future Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting, Jones chimed in that Grimmer may not be there, as there was discussion of removing him from the agenda.
As the Board of Supervisors chair, Jones has the authority over agenda items. With that in mind, it seemed a potential Brown Act violation for Jones to make a statement at a townhall meeting regarding official county business and the fate of future agenda items.
In the case of Grimmer, during a recent supervisors meeting District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert had publicly requested of Jones that Grimmer be placed on an upcoming agenda as an invited guest to address election-fraud allegations, to which Jones had publicly agreed. And yet there was Jones Saturday, saying Grimmer might be removed from the agenda.
Douglas Frank ended the evening with a slide that featured a quote from Albert Einstein: ‘The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”
It was a fitting, albeit ironic quote, considering that the same could be said for detractors of the election-fraud theory. Many people feel the same way about protecting our voting systems. In that way, perhaps Frank was right when he said, “You don’t win with evidence”.
