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Del Norte County voters will cast a ballot for just one contested local race this election season, according to County Clerk-Recorder Alissia Northrup.

Most local agencies won’t appear on the Nov. 5 ballot either because the incumbents are running unopposed or no one filed for election, Northrup said. This is the case for the Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees, the Del Norte Healthcare District and the Del Norte County Library District.

“What’ll happen now is I’ll go through all the different districts and look at who filed and who didn’t and then I’ll send them notifications and let them know that nobody filed [for election],” Northrup told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Thursday. “A lot of the smaller districts, they can’t afford it if someone wants to file and run. They don’t want to risk pushing it to an election because they’re small and they really don’t have the funds to pay big bucks for an election.”

The Board of Supervisors will likely appoint people to fill vacant seats on those special district boards, Northrup said.

An election didn’t appear necessary for the Crescent City Council either, because only three people filed for three open seats. However due to a timing issue, city residents will see those three names on their ballot, according to City Manager Eric Wier.

The city’s initial plan was to bring a resolution before the current Council at a special meeting Aug. 26 appointing the newcomers to their positions, Wier said Thursday. Foregoing an election would have saved the city about $10,000.

However, in talking with City Attorney Martha Rice, Wier later said that the candidates’ names had to have been published in a newspaper of general circulation, the Del Norte Triplicate, five business days before their consideration for appointment on Aug. 26.

That would also have been problematic for the City Council's regular meeting scheduled for Monday, the city manager said.

“With the Triplicate coming out once a week, we’d had to have published it on the 14th in the paper,” Wier said. “And in order to get it in the paper, we would have to give them notice on Aug. 5 and there’s no way we’d have known the names.”


Wier pointed out that the candidate list wasn’t final until 5 p.m. Wednesday. Since Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore and appointed Councilwoman Kelly Schellong didn’t file their election papers, the filing period had been extended until then.

In addition to incumbent Jason Greenough the new city councilors will be Candace Tinkler, retired chief of interpretation at Redwood National and State Parks, and Daran J. Dooley.

#Dooley24 pic.twitter.com/g6PPcxRgoa

— Daran Dooley (@darandooley) August 6, 2024

According to his profile on X, formerly known as Twitter, Dooley describes himself as a redwood Republican, Bigfoot believer, Methodist man and City Council candidate.”

Wier said the new city councilors will be sworn in as soon as Northrup certifies the Nov. 5 election.

The only contested local race that will be on the Del Norte County ballot is for the Crescent City Harbor District Board of Commissioners. Five candidates are vying for three seats on that Board. Incumbents Harry Adams, Wes White and Brian Stone are not among them, according to the county Elections Office.

Candidates include Linda Sutter and Annie Nehmer, both of whom ran for Harbor District in 2022. Sutter also unsuccessfully challenged District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson for his seat in the March 5 primary.

Former Triplicate editor Dan Schmidt, former restaurateur Devon Morgante and John Evans are also seeking seats on the Harbor District Board of Commissioners.

There are currently 14,686 registered voters in Del Norte County. Because people will be voting for United States President, Northrup said she thinks voter turnout will be up. She also pointed out that though there’s only one contested race locally, voters will be asked to weigh in on two bond measures, one for College of the Redwoods and one for Del Norte Unified School District.

CR is asking voters to approve a $120 million bond measure, which would levy a $25 tax per $100,000 of assessed property value. This bond measure would be used to repair and upgrade outdated facilities, classrooms and labs as well as to upgrade aging student housing, deteriorating roofs and wiring.

DNUSD is asking voters to approve a $59 million bond measure. If approved, this measure would apply a $59 tax per $100,000 assessed property value. Those dollars would be used to repair and replace leaky roofs and outdated infrastructure as well as to renovate career technical education facilities and modernize classrooms.

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