With years of experience working local elections, Joanna Francescut has emerged victorious against former Florida attorney Clint Curtis, who was appointed by supervisors last year. Here’s what she had to say about implementing Measure B, and how she’ll address changes Curtis has put in place so far.
Sixty-seven percent of Shasta voters cast their ballots for California Assemblyman James Gallagher. Shasta’s election office has certified the vote for the special congressional election. The rest of the races on the June 2 ballot are not yet certified.
The ballot initiative, which has just been approved by voters, set out to impose voter ID and eliminate mail-in voting — among other changes to local election procedures, which appear to contradict California law. The state had previously warned it was prepared to act if Shasta County attempted to circumvent state authority over elections. Today it did.
Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis is using the same method he chose last November — randomly selecting precincts via ping-pong balls — to conduct the tally. It’s a hand count of a statistically significant sample of votes that’s used statewide to confirm machine counts.
Unofficial results show Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis will not continue to maintain his seat. During a presentation to supervisors this week, he asked for almost a million more than his last budget, describing plans to lease a new office space and conduct in-house printing. Former Assistant ROV Joanna Francescut, who's poised to take his seat, has other priorities.
Measure B establishes multiple changes to local election procedures that contradict state law. As ballot counting nears its end, proponents are celebrating. The state says it's ready to push back.
As an initial June 11 state deadline nears, the county has 1,423 ballots left to process.
The new role, implemented by Shasta Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, was intended to increase efficiency. For some working at the polls, it added chaos and confusion to an already-complex process.
The Shasta County elections office updated vote totals this afternoon. Incumbents are still behind for three important local seats on the ballot, while Measure B — a controversial election initiative — continues to succeed. There are about 2,500 ballots left to be processed, the office says.
The incident allegedly involved Shasta’s election official removing from the office copies of documents that “may have” included confidential voter information, the county said in a press release today. Shasta won’t be initiating legal charges because the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State.
