Shasta’s election official just sponsored a partisan event on Prop. 50 while overseeing the community’s vote on the measure

The Win-River Casino was teeming on Tuesday night, exactly two weeks before California’s special election day. Downstairs, gamblers were playing games of chance and fate, while upstairs, more than 75 people filled a spacious conference room, hoping to win big on a different kind of bet: politics. 

The Oct. 21 event was sponsored by the Republican Central Committee and featured Shasta’s newly-appointed Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis. Advertising for the event was paid for by his campaign. Along with Curtis, Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio also spoke, using the event to campaign against Proposition 50 and in favor of reforming California’s Voter ID laws. 

Curtis briefly spoke during the event, referring to Prop. 50 as “advanced gerrymandering” and sharing his perspective on why it’s important to oppose the measure. His decision to sponsor the partisan event has raised questions about his impartiality from multiple readers who contacted Shasta Scout with their concerns. The elections office Curtis oversees has already begun receiving mail-in ballots for the special election, which includes the Prop. 50 measure.

While both California Election Code and the Shasta County’s election website categorize the Registrar of Voters as a nonpartisan office, there’s no clear indication that Curtis’ sponsorship of, and participation in, the campaign event was illegal. 

“I will confess that I’ve never encountered the question,” constitutional legal scholar Justin Levitt told Shasta Scout when asked about the ethical considerations of an ROV publicly participating in a partisan event related to the election they’re running. “Most election officials are sufficiently concerned with the appearance of impropriety and avoiding the appearance of impropriety … They never put themselves in a position where [their] neutrality on counting the ballots properly and announcing the proper result could be questioned.” 

Shasta Scout contacted the Secretary of State inquiring about the legality of an ROV participating in a partisan event related to an election he’s currently overseeing. That office deferred reporters to the Fair Political Practices Commission which shared state policies outlining financial conflicts of interests, lobbyist regulations and restrictions on gifts. Neither office opined on the legality of Curtis’ action.

In comments to Shasta Scout, Curtis did not express concerns about the legality or optics of his participation in the event. His Assistant ROV Brent Turner told Shasta Scout that he doesn’t know the legalities of his superior’s participation in partisan politics. But he urged voters to feel assured in both the security of the ballot processing system and Curtis’ ethics. 

“The beauty of the system is that if anybody did have a political persuasion, it would be innocuous to the process,” Turner said, adding that he’s decided not to take any partisan stances. “I’m not declaring a persuasion on either side of any issue on a ballot that would be political because I don’t think that would be appropriate.” 

Sean McMorris is the Transparency, Ethics & Accountability Program Manager at California Common Cause, a political advocacy organization focused on government accountability which itself is divided over Prop. 50. He said there is a difference between what is technically legal and how actions may be perceived by the public. 

“It’s something similar to judges. [ROVs] should try not to make it polarizing, because it’s a position of trust,” McMorris said. “You’re counting votes, you’re making sure elections run appropriately — it should not be a partisan thing, but you can make it perceptually very partisan if you engage in rhetoric that is partisan.”

Curtis’ brief introduction for the event was followed by Assemblymember DeMaio’s hour-long overture, which covered the future of the Republican party in California, and included instructions on how to urge your neighbors to vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed gerrymandering. 

Taking nods from his previous career as a radio host, DeMaio was commanding and humorous in his approach — making friendly jabs at himself as a gay conservative and derogatory remarks about others, including trans people and out-of-touch liberals he depicted as addled by white guilt. DeMaio described the current predicament of California conservatives in David and Goliath proportions, saying the media, Wall Street, nonprofits and elected Republicans in Sacramento all work against the values of voters like himself and his audience. 

The vast majority of people in the room were over 50, with the youngest tending to be DeMaio’s staffers and members of the media, including the Associated Press. A group of vendors were hawking wares by the entrance, with bedazzled MAGA merchandise and the more classic Trump T-shirts arranged neatly on a long table. Campaign signs lined the walls of the conference room, many of which read “NO ON 50, DEFEND FAIR ELECTIONS.” Some indicated that the ads had been paid for by the Yuba County Republican Party, while another huge sign noted that it was “sponsored by District 1 Representative Doug LaMalfa.” Interspersed were Curtis’ own campaign posters, advertising his run for ROV in next year’s midterm election. 

Attendees included Shasta Supervisor Kevin Crye and a number of individuals who have been outspoken critics of the Shasta County Elections Office under its previous officials — including some recently hired as extra help election staff by Curtis, who was just appointed to the county’s top election position by the board of supervisors in May.

For years, the Shasta County elections office has been in the crosshairs of ideological debates over how elections should be conducted. At times those debates have focused on public speculation about the personal politics of former election staff. 

Joanna Francescut, the longtime assistant ROV who was terminated by Curtis upon his appointment and is now running against him in the 2026 ROV election, told Shasta Scout that it was once the Shasta election office’s general policy for all its staff to appear outwardly neutral on ballot issues. 

“I would often stop watching the news or hide myself from the political algorithms during election time so that I could remain nonpartisan through the election,” she said, adding that the very idea of nonpartisanship has now become a moving target, as even certain voting protocols are thought of in partisan terms.   

“I don’t know [Curtis’ action] is intentionally to create a divide, but it’s going to create a divide, and it may cause people not to vote,” Francescut said.

Asked about the optics of his presence at the campaign event, Curtis emphasized his approach to ballot processing. “The good thing is that I have made the system so nobody can cheat, especially me,” he said. “At the end of each election, I’m going to take a polygraph to say, I influenced nothing, and I know of no one in the office who did.”

Annelise Pierce contributed reporting for this story.

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