Outside the elections office, Curtis denies evidence of abuse as his supporters campaign against his opponent  

Thursday evening, feet away from the entrance to the Shasta County Elections Office on Market Street, County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis held a press conference in response to findings that he’s been abusive to staff. 

Against a backdrop of flags, Curtis spoke in his own defense, denying his culpability in two county investigations which substantiated that he had engaged in abusive conduct against some of his staff.

“I didn’t do anything that was in that report,” Curtis said. “It’s all just a hack job. Just like Trump got.”

A Shasta Scout reporter was among those who witnessed one of the incidents substantiated by the investigations, when Curtis made a joke about spanking  one of his staffers on election night last year. 

Accusations against Curtis have come from both observers and staff. The investigatory process confirmed claims that he threatened to pull a staffer out of their office by their hair and that he threatened to slap and “throat punch” at least one staffer. 

Last night, other election staffers — two of whom Curtis hired when he began his role last year — spoke in his defense, saying they’ve been witness to his behavior in the office and find him to be an exemplary leader.

Laura Hobbs, an election activist who Curtis brought on as a staffer, was the first to speak. Hobbs is also the central proponent behind the campaign for Measure B, an election-related measure that would likely be illegal to implement if passed by voters on June 2. 

Hobbs blamed “middle-management who’re resistant to change” for issues in the office, alleging that they inadequately trained her in order to to set her up to break election law, something she referred to as “Tina-Petering,” a reference to a former Colorado election official who was jailed for several election-related felonies.

Another election activist, Patty Plumb, also spoke, offering statements in support of Curtis’ approach to election management and asking people to serve as poll workers. She’s currently the county’s poll worker coordinator. 

“We’ve come to a precipice,” Plumb said, speaking broadly of what she sees as the need for changes to election processes in California. “This is a system that has betrayed us.”

She described Curtis as a “Teflon duck,” saying injustices and mistreatment “roll off of him.” Curtis first registered to vote in Shasta County at an address owned by Plumb and her husband. He told a reporter at the time that he was “good friends” with the Plumbs. 

Marjorie Andrews, a staffer who said she was hired in 2024 under Curtis’ predecessor, also offered supportive statements on Curtis’ behalf, alleging that hostility in the work environment is coming not from Curtis but from election staffers who have worked in the office long-term. 

“There’s two sides to every story,” Andrews said. “I’m honored to work with this man. I’m honored with the transparency he’s brought in, and I’m so sad that people can’t see through the propaganda. … I call it Clint derangement syndrome.”

She was the only speaker at the press conference who wasn’t nearly drowned out by the shouts and retorts of an opponent of Curtis’, who used a megaphone to amplify her repeated derogatory comments towards the election official as about two dozen bystanders, including members of the press, filmed the scene.

Kari Chilson was the next to take the microphone. Like Hobbs, she’s one of the five proponents behind Measure B. Unlike Hobbs and the other speakers, Chilson doesn’t work for the Shasta Elections Office. Her comments quickly morphed into active campaigning, focusing on unproven allegations of election fraud against Curtis’ opponent, former Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut.

Curtis made a half-hearted effort to stop her, leaning in to instruct Chilson to keep her comments non-political.

“I don’t even know what politics is,” Chilson said, as Curtis stood next to her, continuing to smile cheerfully. “I told Joanna we need more cameras, and she refused. She refused to make our elections transparent. And I don’t know how she has the audacity to run. And maybe that’s political.”  

Election staffer Hobbs then took the microphone again, discussing in vivid terms her negative personal experiences as an election observer — before she was hired by Curtis and when Francescut still worked in the office — as shouts from the assembled audience grew louder. 

The remarkable scene took place in close proximity to the entrance of the Shasta Elections Office, where voters were dropping ballots into a ballot drop box in the moments leading up to the press conference. The polling place inside the elections office was closed since the press conference was conducted at 6 p.m., after working hours.

The speeches may have veered into the territory of electioneering, which California law defines in part as the “audible dissemination of information that advocates for or against any candidate on the ballot” within 100 feet of a polling place during an election. 

Curtis seemed aware of the potential for violating state electioneering laws. When one of his supporters arrived with Clint Curtis signs, he told them to lay the signs flat on the ground and hide them from view before the press conference started. The supporter did.

When Hobbs and Chilson’s critiques of Francescut ended, Curtis briefly took the microphone again, thanking people for coming to the press conference as he addressed the political content of their speeches with only a single phrase.

“All that last stuff was not me,” he said, still smiling.

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