Shasta elections official Clint Curtis throws out big name: Tina Peters 

Headlines exploded yesterday across the region and nation after Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis announced on a radio show that he hoped to hire former Colorado elections official Tina Peters. 

The name drop drew an instantaneous reaction from large media outlets including the New York Times, which amplified Curtis’ interest in Peters, who was convicted for interfering in the 2020 election. 

President Donald Trump has long supported Peters and even issued her a symbolic pardon after her sentencing in 2024. She was released earlier this summer, after Trump pressured the governor of Colorado to shorten her sentence. 

Curtis said Peters would be a good choice for the role because “she can take the rocks and arrows.”

On Sunday’s episode of local Shasta radio show “Jefferson State of Mine,” Curtis briefly mentioned hopes to speak with Trump about California elections, something he thinks may gain a sympathetic ear with the president, who’s already launched a federal probe in Los Angeles County. 

Curtis hopes to hire Peters to fill the role of Assistant Registrar of Voters Brent Turner, who the elections official announced would be leaving his role next month. Reached for comment by phone today, Turner contradicted that claim, saying he had no plans to step down.

“I believe I’m the assistant registrar. And if anything changes I will certainly let you know,” Turner said.

He added that he had only heard about Curtis’ interest in working with Tina Peters from the media, saying, “It’s certainly a plot twist that was unanticipated.”

Separately, Shasta County spokesperson Miranda Angel shared information that backed Turner’s claim, noting “there is no formal proposal or application to replace the current Assistant Registrar of Voters.” She added that “any prospective employee or consultant would go through the same hiring process as anyone else seeking employment with the County.”

Curtis has not said directly whether he’s made any offer to Peters, or if she’s accepted, instead simply mentioning that he talked with her last week. But her attorney, Peter Ticktin, confirmed today that she’s considering the role.

“Tina Peters is giving consideration to helping in the efforts in Shasta County as there most definitely has been monkey business in the way the election was handled,” Ticktin said in a statement sent by his publicist. He called Peters “one of the key voices leading the effort to get the invasive machines out of our election process.”

Curtis’ announcement about Peters is just the latest headline to have brought national attention to Shasta County’s elections under his supervision.

Shasta’s ROV, who ran his second election in June, recently claimed that there were a number of ballots cast that didn’t “look or feel right” and “didn’t smell right, either.” He cited a number of similar allegations from individuals working in the election office. The majority of those testimonials came from individuals who donated to Curtis’ unsuccessful campaign to maintain his seat as ROV in the June primary.

Many of those same individuals have also helped push forward Measure B, a ballot initiative approved by Shasta County voters that mandates the implementation of voter ID requirements and other major changes to local election procedure — all of which are illegal in the state of California. The measure has already prompted a lawsuit from the California Attorney General and has been temporarily suspended by a Shasta judge, pending a longer legal battle. 

During vote counting in June, the elections official made no mention of suspect ballots, and he certified the election as usual last month. But last week Curtis told the media his concerns about June ballot irregularity had prompted him to lock ballots in an upstairs room at the elections office for potential inspection by the FBI. According to Curtis, FBI agents were in Shasta last week, something the agency has not confirmed. So far, Curtis has said, agents haven’t inspected ballots. 

Curtis was also censured just one week ago by the same Shasta County board that hired him last year. Just after the public meeting in which he was censured, Curtis responded by alleging at least one of his staff had committed election crimes, earning him a new rebuke from County CEO David Rickert who emphasized that employees had not been investigated for such actions and should not be deprived of due process rights. 

Asked if his claims about suspect ballots and employee conduct indicate that he didn’t run the secure election he promised when he was hired last year, Curtis said it’s impossible to do so without a change in the law. He mentioned his interest in seeing Trump’s Save America Act passed to ensure the use of voter ID and in-person voting, both of which are currently illegal in California. 

“The president wants to actually fix this issue,” Curtis told the hosts of the radio show.

“And this would be the issue that we say [to him], this is how mail-in ballots are,” he went on. “They could come in fake. They could come in forged, and there’s nothing the ROV, and the systems they have, are going to be able to do about it. So you got to get rid of that system. You got to have an ID, and you got to have in-person voting, and that eliminates the whole problem.”

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