Person

Joanna Francescut

Nationality:

American

Occupation:

Election Clerk

Location:

Shasta County, CA

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Joanna Francescut is the Assistant County Clerk and Registrar of Voters for Shasta County, California. 1 Francescut holds a non-elected, non-partisan government position. 2

She is associated with the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a left-of-center election policy organization.

Career

Joanna Francescut began her career as a Shasta County elections clerk in 2008. 3 In 2014, she became the Supervising Staff Services Analyst for Shasta County’s elections office, 4 and in 2018 she became the Assistant County Clerk and Registrar of Voters. 5

Ties to Left-of-Center Voting Organizations

Joanna Francescut is listed as a member of the advisory committee of the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). 6 The Center for Tech and Civic Life is a left-of-center election policy organization that received $250 million from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. 7 CTCL uses the contributions it receives to train county election officials and provide election officials with grants to hire more election officials—in effect funding government officials and  providing funding to purchase additional election-related technology, including mail-in-ballot processing machinery. 8

Ties to Facebook

Information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization, revealed that Ms. Francescut was in contact with Facebook officials in the days leading up to the November 6, 2020 presidential election. 9

In the exchange obtained by Judicial Watch, Cristina Flores, a “U.S. Politics & Government Outreach” employee from Facebook received information from Shasta County election monitoring officials relating to the 2020 presidential election. These election officials sought guidance from Facebook on how to respond to allegations of voter fraud. 10

References

  1. Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey.  “When Observation Becomes an Obstacle With California Election Officials Joanna Francescut and Natalie Adona” kbia. October 6, 2022. Accessed January 13, 2023.  https://www.kbia.org/2022-10-06/s2e13-when-observation-becomes-an-obstacle-with-california-election-officials-joanna-francescut-and-natalie-adona
  2. Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey.  “When Observation Becomes an Obstacle With California Election Officials Joanna Francescut and Natalie Adona” kbia. October 6, 2022. Accessed January 13, 2023.  https://www.kbia.org/2022-10-06/s2e13-when-observation-becomes-an-obstacle-with-california-election-officials-joanna-francescut-and-natalie-adona
  3. “Joanna Francescut” LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-francescut-68203910b/
  4. “Joanna Francescut” LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-francescut-68203910b/
  5. “Joanna Francescut” LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-francescut-68203910b/
  6. “CTCL Advisory Committee” Center for Tech and Civic Life. https://www.techandciviclife.org/advisory-committee/
  7. “Press Release: CTCL Receives Additional $100M Contribution to Support Critical Work of Election Officials” Center for Tech and Civic Life. October 13, 2020. Accessed January 13, 2023. https://www.techandciviclife.org/100m/
  8. Culliford, Elizabeth. “Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan Donate $100 Million More to U.S. Election Infrastructure,” October 13, 2020. Accessed January 13, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-zuckerberg-chan/mark-zuckerberg-priscilla-chan-donate-100-million-more-to-u-s-election-infrastructure-idUSKBN26Y22Z.
  9. “SoS-Big-Tech-Election-Misinformation – FOIA” Judicial Watch. https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CA-SoS-Big-Tech-Election-Misinformation-PRA-FOIA-2021-1.pdf
  10. “SoS-Big-Tech-Election-Misinformation – FOIA” Judicial Watch. https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CA-SoS-Big-Tech-Election-Misinformation-PRA-FOIA-2021-1.pdf
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