Shasta election official Clint Curtis presents to Riverside County board
Curtis attended a board meeting in Riverside this week where he claimed that he’s eliminated fights over elections. His presentation occurred the same day that the Shasta board discussed allegations by the public that Curtis misused public resources.
Yesterday morning, Shasta County supervisors briefly discussed alleged misconduct by Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis. The allegations arose after Curtis led a tour at the elections office for gubernatorial candidates from other parts of California, claiming to them that Shasta’s former election officials — which would include his campaign opponent — engaged in criminal acts.
That concerned Shasta Supervisor Allen Long, who said he felt Curtis might have been campaigning on county property, something prohibited by both state law and county policy. But Long, along with other supervisors, decided to take no further action yesterday after County Counsel Joseph Larmour advised the board that Curtis’ remarks were only “incidental” and didn’t rise to the level of a violation of county policy.
Meanwhile, Curtis was hundreds of miles away in Riverside, touting his election approach to the county board of supervisors there.
Curtis spoke to Riverside supervisors after Riverside Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco delivered a presentation related to his county’s local elections. Tinoco’s presentation was given in response to what he referred to as an audit by a local advocacy group which allegedly showed a discrepancy between the ballots that were cast in Riverside and those counted.
Tinoco, who was appointed by the Riverside Board in 2023, attempted to assuage community members’ concerns by explaining the process of ballot counting for Riverside’s 1.4 million voters. Afterward, Curtis added his own thoughts, that Riverside should implement an approach like the one he’s put in place in Shasta County, where he counted 65,000 ballots this last election, so that everyone will trust elections.
Stating that Shasta County uses “forms and paper” to count ballots, Curtis told Riverside officials that while he can’t say what’s the right approach, Shasta puts no stock in computers.
“Essentially, what is going on is that you have someone who believes computers and someone who wants to do forms and paper,” Curtis opined about disagreements over approaches to elections. “I can’t tell you which is right. We do forms and paper and people in Shasta County.
“We count better in Shasta County, I guess,” Curtis continued, “because ours come out dead even. Now, if you run it through the little computer thingies … it might say something different. But we hold no stock to that. We’ve actually counted our ballots and counted our voters so our voters match perfectly.”
It was unclear what process Curtis was discussing as he did, in fact, use voting machines to count the ballots in Shasta County’s election last November, the only election he’s ever run. The results Curtis turned in to state officials came from that machine count. Curtis responded only to a single question for this story.
He explained his ballot counting methods to Riverside supervisors by describing the video livestream process he’s set up in Shasta to film ballots before and after they’re run through machines. “Now this video, by itself, does nothing unless it’s checked,” Curtis said, a statement that seemed to mean that the video only records images, without counting anything. But, he added, “if you check the video, you can find out whether the results match.
“Now we have a video of what’s going on before it ever hits the machine, and it was accurate,” Curtis said. “Does that mean it will be accurate every time? No, it’s going to be accurate if you check the video, but if you stop checking the video and you start trusting machines, that’s when it goes bad.”
But Curtis has never checked the video he took in November against his machine count, something he confirmed for Shasta Scout by text today, saying the video is only for the public’s use.
Before concluding his remarks in Riverside, Curtis also bragged to supervisors there that he had solved Shasta’s conflicts over elections with his new methods, saying the county used to be “a war zone” with “everybody yelling at each other and fighting” but “that’s all gone.”
Then, in an interview conducted by The Riverside Record and shared with Shasta Scout after the meeting, Curtis blamed Shasta community members for causing conflict.
“We’ve got some morons up there that like to complain about everything,” Curtis said. “I call them my little socialists, and so they’re up there complaining, trying to always do stuff.”
Referring to Shasta supervisors during that same interview, Curtis at first called them “idiots,” before noting that while the board reviewed the allegation against him regarding his remarks during the gubernatorial tour — statements he claims were not problematic — no further action was taken.
“I got three of them that like me,” Curtis said, referring to Shasta supervisors, “one that’s cold, and another that, you know, not a chance to get anything good out of him.”
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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Grouchmeister – just providing clean info regarding election system security !! Try it !!
Brent,
I saw down-thread that you recommended a film entitled “The Real Activist” and it was only 30 min. I figured I could afford 30 minutes so i watched it.
You are not doing yourself any favors nor making your case by recommending that-on the other hand I DO now posses a better understanding of what is going on down at the elections office. I cannot say that I would recommend the film to anyone else- I really feel like You owe me for the 30 minutes- but it was revealing.
To me, the funny part is that it’s like a train wreck in slow motion.
Mr. T. keeps commenting and doesn’t realize that every comment makes him seem worse…
“an audit by a local advocacy group which allegedly showed a discrepancy between the ballots that were cast in Riverside and those counted”
Elections must be conducted transparently.
But, by law some voter information must always remain confidential. A report from the registration database showing voters who cast a ballot in an election cannot include voters who cast a provisional ballot or confidential voters.
So, an audit by a community group that compares the number of voters in a voting history report will never exactly match the number of ballots counted by the separate voting system.
Whoever runs the Elections office needs to be totally apolitical. It used to be that way.
Joeanna ‘s apprenticeship of 17 years did her little good beings when she got her chance to run a transparent election she failed miserably. Come to find out Joeanna doesn’t qualify for any position working for Shasta County and then along comes Clint Curtis who has never run an election and runs the most transparent election in the state. Go figure.
LMAO
The most transparent election in the state?? Lolololol
And Nick believes it because Mr Curtis said so himself.
Forget the fact that no one could watch the live feed and Shasta County was the last in the state to report simple election results to the secretary of state. But, yeah, the most transparent election in the state.
Nick, I also have a bridge to sell you. Cheap!!
Usually best practice is to not converse with “ ghost folk “afraid of using real names but here’s one more /
There is no rationale to dispute the fact the transparency of the process was greatly upgraded by the implementation of the security upgrades. From tracking to sealing to logging and streaming the new methodology provided Shasta County voters with a proper system that was absent previously
It may be upsetting to some that change has come but these changes are for the protection of the vote counting process
Mr Turner, you misspelled your own last name again…
LMAO, so why should I take your word everything is so much better when you’ve misspelled your own last name about three or four different times now?
You really don’t inspire a lot of confidence in people.
It is encouraging that the coverage and comments in this and other stories about the Curtis/Turner changes to the method of voting in Shasta country are overwhelmingly in opposition to the MAGA conspiracy nature of the new ROV. Curtis also adopts a very trump like persona as he goes against the long established tradition in which NO, I say again, NO evidence of fraud has been proven.
I hope and predict that Johanna wins in a landslide!
Vote Francescut.
We–the citizens of Shasta County–need not concern ourselves with MAGA of the “Right” side of the political spectrum nor with “Progressives [left side]” of the political spectrum: We need only concern ourselves with County Clerk [and registrar of voters] Clint Curtis’s conduct.
That conduct needs examination: (1) who paid for the trip to Riverside County, (2) was County Clerk Curtis there as our County Clerk or as a private citizen, (3) did a Shasta County ordinance or a non-codified policy forbid the trip and presentation, (4) did County Council Counsel Joseph Larmour prepare a written report in support of his opinion? That last question invites the following question: Will the Board of Supervisors waive their attorney-client privilege if such a report was written (or require one to be written). A significant percentage of “We” would like to review that opinion–perhaps with a local lawyer who specializes in governance law.
Although there is no chance that County Clerk Clint Curtis will win the November election, the Board cannot count on Joanna Francescut being magnanimous in victory; therefore the board may want to consider withhold or call back some of the County Clerk’s budget as an offset for a civil action for slander that Ms. Francescut might file against County Clerk Curtis.
Brent Truner…did you keep your apt. in San Francisco ? As of Jan 27, you’ll need it.
He never shows up to the office so I would say we are paying him a premium salary to “work” from home with little to no oversight. Chew on that people of Shasta County who think this is a shining example of well spent taxpayer dollars.
So Clint Curtis has now identified his useful and most willing “IDIOTS” – CRYE, KELSTROM and HARMON who cover his tracks as he uses Shasta county as his stepping stone to promote his election conspiracies on the taxpayer dime. With the county counsel Larmour in Crye’s pocket to cover his tracks as witnessed at the Feb 10th board meeting it will be interesting to see how corrupt the upcoming elections will be. There should have been at a minimum a NO CONFIDENCE vote or censure on his lack of judgement as a public servant in a nonpartisan position. Shasta county is as corrupt as they come in cronyism and partisan politics.
In a NY Times article today, “Trump’s Director of Election Security is an Election Denier”, we’re led down the rabbit hole of Trump to Olsen to Lindell – Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow, who has become best known for promoting the falsehood that voting machines are often rigged and have flipped elections. Lindell has loudly endorsed Curtis, and Curtis himself has said his claim to fame is creating a program to rig election machines. Just thinking out loud here, but perhaps our community should begin either collecting a fund to pay for a full hand recount or petitioning the BOS to order it done or both if this Clerk-ROV contest results in Curtis’ favor? I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I do know how to read the room.
I checked the Riverside Record for an account of what he told its reporter. Also, I was interested in whether anyone had told the Riverside supes, perhaps via the Record, that Curtis had lied to them about computers and machine counts up here, including the buried lede about the 11/24 election certification to the SoS that had used “computer thingies.” No report of a Curtis interview that I could find. If no one down there wants or gets the whole story, then B.S. is still out there, stinking up the Riverside County board chambers.
SS, do you have an edit function? Thanks
Curtis publicly accused Joanna Francescut of election crimes. If he can’t provide some credible evidence to back his claims he should be fired. Our 3 member MAGA BOS have been cultivating Trumps Big Lie here in Shasta Co since Crye flew out to meet with the Pillow Idiot on county funds. The Big Lie is even less credible now that it was then. After 3 years of dismantling our election system and spending hundreds of thousands of county dollars trying to create ‘voter fraud’ where none exists our BOS cannot show even a single case of certified voter fraud in Shasta County. Since MAGA took over there leadership strategy has been to fire all non MAGA employees regardless of qualifications and proven job performance and replace them with inexperienced unqualified MAGA loyalists. VOTE THEM OUT!
Randy, you are absolutely right.
I’ve pointed this out several times myself. Even with Mr Curtis and Mr Turner actually inside of the election’s office, there is still NOT A SHRED of proof or evidence of mass voter fraud.
The best they have is Mr Curtis trying to claim that there “may” have been ballet stuffing. But even then they still don’t have any proof, just their accusation to try to make their rival in the election look bad.
Look, you got people like Patty Plumb, and Laura Hobbs working for the election department now, and they are as close to any type of proof or evidence as they’re ever going to get. So where the heck is it?
Enough of this crying wolf. Either put up or shut up. And if you’re one of the grifted who still happens to believe these folks, ask yourself why there still is no proof or evidence behind any of their claims. And if you’re honest, you’ll see that there is none.
Who paid for this trip?
Was Curtis in Riverside lobbying for a new job? Shasta County moron wants to know.
Hope he gets hired down there. Would be the best and least expensive way to divest our county of him.
The fix is in! I was wondering what Brent was doing there instead of Clint; now we all see. Crye, Kelstorm, and Larmour knew he wasn’t going to be there and planned to have Chair Crye jump in on R-4 and quash it. After all, Clint knows his supervisors, whom he calls “idiots,” will do what’s told. Hard to say if Plummer, the “one who’s cold,” and Long, “not a chance to get anything good out of him,” even knew what was going to go down, but it doesn’t matter. Will Crye or Clint have taxpayers fly out with a letter to Trump?
Aside from obvious violation of the US Constitution, which resulted in a minor slap on his hands as reported in Shasta Scout, why does the Shasta County Board of Supervisors (SCBOS) repeatedly allow its temporary, appointed, non-elected Registrar of Voters (ROV), Clint Curtis, to get away with using what is supposedly a non-partisan role to promote Trumpism and attack his political opponents? The answer is clear: Curtis is a committed election denier and supporter of Donald Trump, the central figure, creator, and embodiment of “Trumpism” and the MAGA movement. And so is the majority of the SCBOS.
An “R” item on a Shasta County Board of Supervisors agenda stands for the Regular Calendar. These items represent non-routine, significant policy, financial, or administrative actions that typically require discussion and a specific vote by the Board, unlike consent calendar items, which are passed en masse. The Board’s action on Tuesday, February 10th, to discuss and then simply dismiss R-4, “Discuss the recent actions by the County Clerk/Registrar of Voters and the alleged misuse of public funds for electioneering and campaigning,” without any public input, especially after being told the public could give input, may violate the Brown Act. Sadly, it’s now clear that citizen suppression may quickly become a unified stance among all board members.
The board members now seem to be working together to silence the public who aren’t their supporters by suppressing citizens’ rights to speak out against the board’s Trumpian lies, conspiracy theories about chemtrails and vaccines, elections, and possible ROV illegality. Meanwhile, some supervisors are using their positions at BOS meetings to praise Turning Point USA, Trump, the Republican Party, Christian universities, and to give time to Republican candidates running for office, all to influence or control Shasta County citizens and government for MAGA. I’ll ask: Why is the meeting even open to the public? Where is the call to allow the public to exercise their First Amendment and Brown Act rights to speak on important agenda items impacting our county? Where is the simple question, “Is this even within our jurisdiction?” The answer, the fix is in, democracy is dying, and the SCBOS is feeding us arsenic as medicine.
I totally disagree with your statement that Dist. 2 supervisor, Allen Long, ‘doesnt’ have chance to get anything good out of him’, He’s the only Sup that does deep investigation of many Agenda items, only to be out voted by the 3 horsemen of the Apocalypse, and often very little support from D4 Sup. Even Larmour suggested that the BOS could censure Curtis over his action at the election office. Then his trip to Riverside needs to be investigated who authorized and paid for it, mine and your tax dollar ? that make 3 censures and your out. Francescut needs to file a lawsuit against him for his accusation. Every time he speaks he puts a nail in his re-election coffin. Back to Florida Curt.
I was quoting Clint…
“Referring to Shasta supervisors during that same interview, Curtis at first called them “idiots,” before noting that while the board reviewed the allegation against him regarding his remarks during the gubernatorial tour — statements he claims were not problematic — no further action was taken.
“I got three of them that like me,” Curtis said, referring to Shasta supervisors, “one that’s cold, and another that, you know, not a chance to get anything good out of him.”
Yeah, Long is a good guy, so is Plummer, just wishing they would fight back a little. The meeting was a very strange event.
I’m willing to wager whatever amount you want that Shasta County didn’t pay for Clint’s trip to Riverside County. I wonder did Shasta County pay for any of the multiple trips Joeanna and Kathy took ?
Our reputation as a county sucks out loud anyways, just on the basis of the local news getting out. Most recent case in point, our status as the biggest measles hotspot in the State—a lead that’s sure to grow.
It doesn’t help when our MAGA election fabulists take their shit-show on the road. Thanks for making us look like a bunch of mouth-breathers, grifter Curtis.
It is true we do use voting machines in Shasta County as well as we have implemented surrounding risk management procedures such as video and other security protocols
Hopefully Riverside County and other CA counties appreciate the pioneering spirit and adopt these simple upgrades. This will help them to increase voter confidence until we can implement voting security upgrades via open source / paper ballot systems
Gotta love that moronic socialist pioneering spirit of Shasta County! I do appreciate you trying to do damage control for your boss. Perhaps next time you apply for work, maybe do some risk management for your own career and know who you’re hitching your wagon to? Grifters are gonna grift after all.
Tanner, glad you are not working for the county anymore. You did a poor job.
Brent, all the previous elections for about the last 20 years have been on paper ballots.
It’s concerning that you, as the assistant registrar of voters, don’t seem to know that.
There was more voter confidence before you and Mr Curtis.
Yo Groucho –
I’m aware of the history of voting and the fact that we utilize paper ballots. I was on the front lines of fighting for paper ballots in that moment. The voting system for which I historically advocate have a mandatory perfectly printed paper ballot in conjunction with open source software.
Yo, Mr Turnet. You give yourself more credit than you deserve. (But wait, I thought your name was supposed to be Mr Turner?)
But you just keep on going with your comments, you’re doing so well.
Thanks Grouchdude
With foundational education even a staunch hand counter recognizes the benefits of the open source software / paper ballot systems. The fact Christine Pelosi and myself managed to place this important language in the heart of the Democratic Party platform speaks volumes – coupled with the fact many Republicans have also supported open source legislation- shows us the future of voting. No longer will counties be relegated to the current vendor cartels and obfuscation techniques. The people shall overcome !!
Mr Turner, you speak in riddles and weird analogies because you have no idea what is happening in the department you are the assistant to.
You are never there and have zero interest in attempting to learn your position. It’s pathetic and your actions speak louder than your words.
YOU are a disgrace and a thief for stealing a paycheck from the tax payers.
That’s quite interesting, because I have called many times to speak to Mr Turner, and he is often not there and staff is not sure where he actually is.
So either he is instructing staff to tell people he is not there, or he actually isn’t there. Either way as a public official that is a problem.
Yo Jolly. If you have a real name I am glad to meet with you anytime in person for obvious security reasons I am disallowed from in person meetings with folks that operate under anything other than actual names. If you choose not to reveal your identity I can still meet with you via telephone anytime
Hey Brent,
You and I have had long and interesting conversations and I really do appreciate that. I also appreciate the fact that it seems, as Betty Yee demonstrated for you last year at the Shasta County Democratic Headquarters, you did have a solid history of progressive activism in San Francisco. But, I got to say, I think both Candidate Yee and Candidate Christine Pelosi would be shocked at your current position of bolstering election lies for Shasta County MAGA, and covering for who I believe is a lying con man, who openly states he is giving Trump’s DOJ election information in hopes of prosecuting his political opponent…..we’re talking about you boss good old trumper Curtis…. Dude, WT-!
You were brought on board by Cutis as a ruse because, like MAGA, you also endorse conspiracy theories about voting machine manipulation, that has been demonstrated time and again in over 90 local court cases as well as the US Supreme Court non-evidence-based fiction. And I do feel some sympathy for you man.
Having Curtis use you, “See, I got my Democrat backing me…” is just weird. And as you know, the Democratic Party does have a Big Tent, but, you’re stretching that tent to a point that is seriously putting your credibility in jeopardy! And sure, your position has got to be an awkward position to be in. But I hope one day you will be able to at least say, “Yeah, that ROV stuff was a strange situation.”
I wish the best for your health.
See you out there on the line!
A real example of Dunning-Kruger?
I’m not entirely sure, but I do think that by now, Mr Turner, you would have learned that you are only making things worse when you open your mouth.
It’s pretty obvious by now that you’re always going to claim that you & Mr Curtis are so “great”, “pioneering”, and “innovative”, even though there are some glaringly obvious truths that you have deficiencies in your whole process.
But hey, you got people to grift, so you be you.
Brent,
.
1. We already have paper ballots. I fill out and drop off my paper mail-in/drop-off ballot every election.
.
2. The election deniers still piss and moan that the video system doesn’t allow them to see up close what’s going on. For example, they can’t really see signature confirmations (I assume by design for reasons of confidentiality).
.
3. “Open source” is going to increase voter confidence? The vast majority of our local election deniers have no idea what “open source” even means. Nothing will satisfy them until paper ballots are counted by hand, because manual labor is the only technology they understand and trust. And some of them want hand counts because they’re the easiest to corrupt if you’re in control.
.
Dude, even if your heart is in the right place, you are SO out of your element. You apparently have no idea what kind of Goobers and Gomers make up our election deniers. And you’re carrying water for one of the foulest carpetbagging grifters who’s ever slimed NorCal.
Thank you for acknowledging my efforts for the people of the United States. In speaking with other counties, it has become apparent the need for upgraded systems is now. Unfortunately the Secretary of State has not certified open source systems for use. This puts Calif awkwardly behind states like New Hampshire and Mississippi who have already gone to the 2.0 model. The open source Voting system obviously embraces paper ballots as part of the system with the difference being the software is now viewable by the public.
No one acknowledged your efforts for anything.
Reading comprehension can be hard, and that is why a good education is so valuable.
Yes Grouchmeister / Christian
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
My reading comprehension is good so don’t worry
Please watch the documentary The Real Activist and give me your thoughts It features my self and the former head of the CIA discussing the very issues that are confronting you
Hope this helps !!
Yo Mr Turncoat, I ain’t Christian.
So sorry, try again!
Little bit of a narcissist, ain’t ya? Promoting your own movie huh?
😂 Lol