Shasta elections official Curtis says he hopes to hire former opponent and ROV-elect Francescut as assistant ROV
In a surprise announcement, Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis shared the news during an interview yesterday. Curtis fired Francescut from the same position last year. His current assistant ROV hasn’t confirmed plans to vacate the role.
Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis is looking to hire his former opponent and the current ROV-elect, Joanna Francescut.
In an interview yesterday, he said he hopes to hire Francescut as the assistant ROV — the same role he fired her from last year.
Such an offer could only occur if Assistant ROV Brent Turner left the role first. That’s something Curtis said he expects to happen in the next few months, although Turner declined to confirm today whether he has any plans to leave the role.
The idea to hire Francescut was an unexpected confession by Curtis, who lost to her in last month’s election. She’s slated to take his seat in January.
Over the last year, he’s made controversial claims about Francescut, including an unbacked claim that she stuffed ballots while working at the elections office and a debunked claim that the majority of her campaign donations came from San Francisco donors.
In May, Curtis implied in a Facebook video that if Francescut was elected, voters “will never be able to have a fair election in Shasta County again.”
So why hire her now?
Curtis said part of his reasoning behind wanting Francescut for the role — should it become vacant — is that elections office staff hired under former ROV Cathy Darling Allen would prefer Francescut’s leadership, saying, “she can deal with the people that love her.”
He said he fired Francescut last year because they had a completely different view on how to run the office, from observers to election processes to transparency. He also said she acted too much as the one in charge of the office rather than his assistant. He fired her less than a week after he was appointed.
Despite their differences — and their history — Curtis said he’s hopeful that they can work together if he ends up hiring her.
Francescut doesn’t appear eager about Curtis’ potential offer. She said in a statement to Shasta Scout yesterday that he has not yet approached her about the role, but that she’ll consider and analyze every fact and next step before making a decision, if it’s placed before her.
“Ultimately, I will ensure the decision I make will align with what’s best for both my family and the community we love,” she said. “I will need a clear and compelling reason to serve our community under his leadership.”
The elections office is currently working to implement Measure B, the ballot measure passed by voters in June that makes sweeping changes to Shasta’s election system, including requiring voter ID, same-day voting and hand-counting ballots. Several of the measure’s provisions violate state and federal laws, and the measure itself is currently being challenged in court by California’s Attorney General’s and Secretary of State’s Offices. The state is confident the measure will be struck down.
In the meantime, the Shasta elections office is making preparations for the measure ahead of the November general election. Curtis said nearly 930 poll workers will need to be hired and trained to conduct hand counting at precincts, and the number of polling places will need to be almost doubled to accommodate the influx of in-person voters that would be necessitated by the elimination of most mail-in voting.
It’s a hefty task for Curtis, who has only administered two elections. Francescut, who worked in the Shasta elections office for 17 years prior to her termination last year, said experience in the field is crucial to handling this situation.
“I would like to remind this community that it takes a working knowledge of election systems and processes to successfully implement any of the significant changes required by Measure B,” she wrote.
“This measure wasn’t just about voter identification … and if there isn’t a court order to stop the implementation, the office will be responsible to implement numerous changes.”
Curtis said the implementation of Measure B is another reason he hopes Francescut will step into the ROV role, if he offers it to her. He said for now, he doesn’t plan to leave the elections office early unless he gets “some great offer somewhere else.”
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Joanna, please don’t go back in under Curtis’s leadership. Fired because you “acted like the one in charge?” Holy crap, you should have been the one in charge. The only reason I’d want you to go back before January is because I trust you. But don’t stress yourself out. Who knows what Curtis would pull and try and blame on you? If you don’t want to go back before January, don’t!! I’d take a nice long Christmas vacation and go in under my terms.
People, why is it so hard for you to grasp that the BOS cannot fire Curtis. Despite having been appointed, the law treats him as an independent elected county official. The only way he’s going before the end of his term in January is if he chooses to resign himself.
Now, I agree that I’d be very cautious about Joanna accepting at-will employment as his assistant ROV. If he can be trusted, which is a stretch that defies logic, then her services are needed to resolve employee morale issues and recruit poll workers for the General Election in November. He basically wants to borrow her well-earned credibility to avoid his own potential failure.
Either the risk is something greater than delay, in which case Kelstrom should publicly encourage him to resign immediately and promise to seek Joanna’s appointment as acting ROV; or he should be left to his own devices to fail or fade away. In either case, we are well rid of him.
Joanna, please do not accept any offer from Curtis, unless he and all his cronies resign.
Because curtis lost the election, I believe now, the BOS can fire him for his abusive behavior towards the SC employees that have been reported in the investigative reports; also, the BOS should remove all of curtis’s cronies if they were to fire Curtis.
Then and only then Joanna should consider accepting from the BOS if they wanted to hire her to finish out curtis’s term.
Please Joanna, do not accept anything from Curtis, unless he resign first.
What a joke Curtis continues to be.
Joanna, don’t accept this unless it is on your terms.
Hopefully those terms would include the dismissal of Curtis, now.
ROV Elect Francescut would be ill advised to accept a position under Clint Curtis. I sense a trap by Curtis, Turner, Hobbs et al.. If I were in her position I would decline any employment in the Elections office prior to her swearing in unless Curtis, Turner, Hobbs and any other remaining proponent of Measure B first tender their resignations.
I would advise Francescut to avoid working under Curtis in a position where he could control and likely sabotage her work.
I hope the the BOS fires Curtis for cause well before the November Elections and asks Francescut to start early as ROV.
The absolute MAGA stupidity brought to us by Curtis, Cryer, Kelstorm, Mr. Wolfman, P. Jones, and L. Hobbs has culminated in new highs with this one. How about this? Fire Clint, put Jonna in command, and put C. Darling in as temp second-in-command.
Looks like our friend Mr. Turner is about to be subjected to the “Shasta Backstab”, courtesy of Clint the Clown. If that’s not catchy enough, feel free to come up with a better one Brent.
Looks like we’re in for 6 months of blame shifting and back stabbing. Buy popcorn futures.
Selah
That’s a Trump move. He’s delusional-just like his twin dresser the POTUS.
The solution is to pressure the BOS to immediately fire Curtis for cause!
What a pos! Fired the one person who could have helped him. Now he wants to hire her? Joanna should respectfully decline. This is a political stunt by Clint Curtis the butt hurt pitiful man who has done a horrible job in the position he was appointed to! He then hired another pitiful man to be his side kick. Now when his own harassing behavior has made it so he has to be baby sat by a third party if he is even in the ROV office. His own choice of assistant has been reported to not even be on site in the office that he is being paid to do! The only way Joanna should even engage this proposal, should it come is if the grifter Clint Curtis resigns! Along with Clint Curtis’s exit there needs to be a house cleaning of every MAGA election denier that he hired!
Astonishing. Profound levels of negligence on behalf of our elected officials has cost us millions and landed us with incompetent (and let’s not forget ABUSIVE) leaders. I’m looking at YOU Kevin Crye. Move to Florida, we want you wiped clean from our community along with this buffoon you corruptly shoved down our throats.
If I’m Francecut, I wouldn’t touch this (possibly fake) offer with a 10-foot pole. It reeks of a likely Trojan Horse scheme. “Trust me. I’m Clint Curtis… a straight shooter.”
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Yeah, no.
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Let Clint screw up the November election with nobody to share the blame but his current Assistant ROV-in-abstentia. Oh, the non-MAGA-loon staffers don’t like you because you’re an abusive anal orifice? Not Joanna’s problem, my man. Not her bed to lie in.
100% agree with your assessment on this.
My thoughts exactly.