Shasta elections official says he’ll certify June primary despite demands from activists
At a recent board meeting, election activists — some of whom now work for the county elections office — alleged fraud on statewide voter rolls, demanding that Shasta’s election official not certify the vote. Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis told a reporter yesterday he’ll certify the vote unless a court order tells him otherwise.
“Ron here — wanted to just share a little bit about psychology,” began local elections activist Ronald Plumb as he stood at the dais at Tuesday’s board meeting.
“It’s harder to convince someone they’ve been deceived than it is to deceive them, and we as a people have been deceived in many, many ways,” he said.
Yesterday, Plumb was among those at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting claiming that noncitizens are registering at DMVs across the state to vote. Some used that claim to demand that Curtis not certify the June 2 primary.
Plumb describes himself as a senator for New California State, a separatist movement that has set up an unrecognized parallel government within the state of California — complete with its own elections, independence day and constitution.
He and his wife also helped administer the most recent election in Shasta County — as paid staff. Both are strong proponents of Shasta elections official Clint Curtis who was appointed to the position last year. The Florida-based lawyer even lived at a property owned by the couple when Curtis moved to the county to conduct his first election last fall.
During Tuesday’s board meeting, several members of the public read parts of a letter to counties sent out by New California this week, sharing claims of noncitizen DMV voter registrations and claiming that certifying the primary at the local county level would amount to a felony.
Curtis disagrees. He told a reporter yesterday that he doesn’t understand New California’s statewide alarm, saying he plans to certify the election in Shasta unless a court order tells him not to.
“In order to delay certification,” Curtis wrote, “an entity would need to provide enough evidence to the courts to get a restraining order regarding certification. That is a high bar to achieve. My guess is that New California will not be able to meet that burden and the certification will happen all across the state on July 2nd.”
‘A flood of illegal aliens’
The letter was sent to county officials across the state earlier this week by Robert Preston, the “Governor Pro Tempore” of New California.
Preston used the letter to urge registrars across the state to contest the certification of California’s June primary, calling it “common knowledge” that there has been a “flood of illegal aliens” in California, whom, he claimed, were presented the opportunity to register to vote while seeking services at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“Investigative reporters” have found that some of these noncitizens “have, in fact, voted,” Preston claimed, saying sheriffs across the state were obligated to act in response.
Doing so would risk running afoul of a new state law, passed urgently this spring to prevent the kind of ballot seizure that occurred in Riverside County in March. There, Sheriff and former California gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco began an investigation in response to claims from election activists. Curtis’ has spoken to the Riverside board about those claims. He was also the first to break the news of Bianco’s ballot seizure, something he did during a Shasta County board meeting.
Preston’s unproven claims of voter fraud in the New California letter coincide with accusations being made against California’s electoral system in recent weeks by President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, Trump called on Republicans to “nationalize” the electoral process, responding to his belief that states rigged the 2020 election against him.
Just yesterday, a lawsuit by a multi-state coalition was successful in pushing back one of Trump’s attempts to regulate elections at the federal level. The executive order impacted by yesterday’s court ruling echoes some of the same sentiments shared by NCS activists, expressing fears about noncitizen voting.
After years of effort, little progress made with Shasta election activists
The Plumbs are among a small but deeply committed group of Shasta election activists who, for years prior to Curtis’ appointment, have claimed that both the state and county’s electoral processes were vulnerable to fraud.
Some have accused former elections officials of mistreatment of election observers and even the outright sabotage of local elections, allegations have not been proven despite multiple lawsuits brought against the elections office in recent years.
After Curtis’ appointment, the Plumbs were granted close proximity to the inner workings of Shasta’s election office — along with other elections activists, many of whom worked in paid roles for the June primary. Curtis said he hired the activists to alleviate their election concerns, something he’s previously claimed was successful.
But Tuesday’s board meeting made clear that activists’ direct role in handling ballots has not addressed the root causes of their skepticism — kept alive by the fear that noncitizens are voting in American elections.
Those activists have placed their hope in Measure B, a controversial citizen-led ballot initiative that passed with 56% of the vote this June. If implemented, it would disconnect Shasta’s rolls from California’s statewide database — and shield local rolls from state oversight.
But Measure B must survive a lawsuit brought forward by California’s Attorney General and Secretary of State earlier this month. And so far, Shasta County supervisors have refused to defend against that lawsuit despite the ongoing pleas of activists. Supervisors discussed the suit again Tuesday, in closed session, emerging with no reportable action.
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I wonder if one of the activists who was a paid worker for the election is the person who allegedly handed out ballots shortly before the election or was involved in unlocking a closet and photocopying things (giving copies to Curtis to remove from the election’s office) and re-locking the papers in another closet? I hope the state is still investigating Shasta County’s election. Once again, the BOS chose an unqualified person to be Registrar of Voters and, guess what? Curtis couldn’t find fraud, either!!!
Let me see if I’ve got this right. I am an undocumented alien. The government is conducting a mass deportation pogrom. Accordingly, the last thing on earth that I want to do is draw attention to myself. So, I none-the-less walk into the DMV, give them my name and address, and demand to be registered to vote. Maybe if I get drunk this will all make sense.
Absolutely fascinating to watch as this whole thing crumbles around the election deniers.
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Ron & Patty Plum both worked for the “new improved, more efficient & transparent elections” method, and apparently there was still fraud that was going on right under their nose!!
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They had all these people who were supposed to prevent fraud, but somehow it still happened on their watch.
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And yet still not a single shred of evidence to be found…In fact all evidence points to the contrary: there was NO mass election fraud in Shasta county.
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Anyway, just going to grab some popcorn and watch as they turn on each other.
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Absolutely fascinating to watch it crumble before me very own eyes…
Certifying elections is his job. It’s literally in his job description. I don’t understand why is everything with that office a conspiracy or fraud. I’m exhausted by the whole of it
Delusions upon delusions upon more delusions. None of these allegations have been proven, despite repeated tries in court. And likely never will. Get a life, people!
It is so funny that the election deniers were actually in charge for this, and the previous special election, and still (because they didn’t get the results that dreamed of) complain about the process.
Wow, the fraud it apparently so prevalent that even the “activists” couldn’t stop it! These immigrants must have used their wizard powers to mind control the Plumbs and Hobbs of the world to not see the fraud until after the results were in. There’s absolutely no way that their preferred candidates were simply unpopular with voters.
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First chemtrails, and now we’re being invaded by illegal immigrant wizards???
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/s
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But it really must suck for them to live in an election deniers world. Imagine looking over your shoulder all the time because everyone is out to get you.
There really are a lot of illegal immigrants in California. Preston’s letter offers no other evidence that they any of them voted. Surely he could have found one! And he shows no knowledge whatsoever of how the DMV licensing process and the voter registration work, but who am I to contradict the Governor of New California?
The skulls just get number and number around here.
Credit to Clint Curtis for take.
There really are a lot of illegal immigrants in California. Preston’s letter offers no other evidence that they any of them voted. Surely he could have found one! And he shows no knowledge whatsoever of how the DMV licensing process and the voter registration work, but who am I to contradict the Governor of New California?
The skulls just get number and number around here.
Sorry for the double post. Feel free to delete the clutter!
But seriously, credit to Clint Curtis for having the baseline of good sense to ignore his allies’ weird legal advice.