Becerra joins voting rights group in urging Shasta grand jury to remove ROV Clint Curtis

California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, along with a state voting rights group, is urging the Shasta County Grand Jury to do its “duty” to initiate the process to remove Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis. 

The UCLA Voting Rights Project, a group for which Becerra is the senior legal advisor, wrote a letter today to the grand jury, board of supervisors and district attorney that outlined what they said is the jury and county officials’ responsibility to remove Curtis for “willful or corrupt misconduct in office.” 

Curtis, who was appointed to his role, is slated to hold his seat through early January. He responded to news of the letter by saying he “would love to go to court.”

A press release by the voting rights group noted that despite certifying the results of the June primary election, one in which he lost to former Assistant ROV Joanna Francescut, Curtis has since raised unsubstantiated concerns about ballots and locked them in the elections office in hopes federal officials would investigate them.

While Curtis has not been charged with or convicted of any election crimes, the letter indicated the voting rights group’s belief that he likely committed them. 

Beyond that, the group claimed Curtis has engaged in conduct “below the standard of decency,” reducing trust in elections and putting them at risk.

“It sets a dangerous precedent if Mr. Curtis was allowed to employ the authority of his office to cast suspicion on an election he administered, certified, but then lost,” said Sonni Waknin, Senior Voting Rights Counsel at the UCLA Voting Rights Project. 

“With another election approaching,” Waknin added, “Shasta County voters deserve an elections office that follows the law, protects the chain of custody, and administers every ballot with professionalism and transparency.”

Curtis has been the center of controversy many times since being appointed, but public concern about his behavior has escalated over recent weeks, during which he’s made national headlines for expressing interest in hiring convicted felon Tina Peters and attempted to draw the presence of federal officials in hopes of examining what he claims are “suspect” ballots. 

He told Shasta Scout by text today in response to the letter that he had not yet heard from the grand jury about the matter. He added that it sounds to him like Becerra is “a little afraid of honest elections” and alluded to the possibility that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate may be involved with what he referred to as “the counterfeit ballots.” 

“I would be very wary of anyone who wants to cover up an investigation by the authorities on something as important as a citizens ability to vote and know that the elections are not being decided by fraudulent means,” Curtis wrote.

In today’s press release, voting rights attorney Waknin demanded state and local officials to take action before the November election, which is also when Becerra will be on the ballot. The letter sent to local officials today outlined a process by which Curtis could be removed from office, citing California government code. 

The process requires the Shasta County Grand Jury to initiate action against Curtis. According to the law, the jury could present a formal accusation of “willful or corrupt misconduct in office” against Curtis to the Shasta District Attorney’s Office, which would then serve the accusation to Curtis and instruct him when to appear in the Shasta Superior Court. Once filed, Curtis would have an opportunity to respond to the allegations and, should the court case proceed, be tried before a jury. 

The letter urged the board of supervisors to support any efforts by the grand jury to remove Curtis.

The voting rights group laid out the ways in which it believes Curtis has violated his duties as an elections official, which included sequestering voters’ ballots, duplicating documents containing voter information and using work hours to make campaign phone calls, the last of which was substantiated by a Shasta County investigation. 

“These acts need not be criminal … but demonstrate that Registrar Curtis acts below the standards of decency expected of a Registrar of Voters in California,” the letter said. “These willfully indecent acts justify the Grand Jury to initiate removal proceedings.” 

The Shasta County grand jury did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would initiate the process to remove Curtis from office. 

---

Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.