Shasta supervisors censure election official Clint Curtis, citing misconduct against staff
Curtis was formally rebuked by the board for substantiated findings of retaliation against staff, along with verbal abuse and threats of violence. He responded to the censure by sharing new claims against elections staff.
Months after some Shasta supervisors first suggested censuring County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, a majority of the board has finally voted to do so.
Shasta County Supervisor Matt Plummer took the strongest stance on the censure.
“I think we owe it to … our county employees,” Plummer said, “to say that you need to follow the personnel codes and if you don’t, there are going to be consequences to the extent that we can take them.”
The supervisor spent close to 15 minutes at the board of supervisors meeting this morning litigating his case against Curtis before voting to censure him. He used the time to share details of the investigative reports, outlining how he weighed the veracity of the witness interviews in response to concerns from some in the audience that the process was unfair.
The formal rebuke came in response to two investigative reports, one of which was produced internally by the county and the other by a third-party investigator. The investigations substantiated findings that Curtis had engaged in misconduct against staff that included verbal abuse, threats of violence and retaliatory actions.
Plummer was joined in the censure by Supervisors Allen Long and Chris Kelstrom, who each spoke briefly on the topic before voting to formally rebuke the Shasta election official. Both, like Plummer, focused on the need to safeguard Shasta’s employees. Kelstrom was one of three supervisors who voted to appoint Curtis last year over the strong objections of Plummer and Long, along with the majority of the vocal public.
Supervisor Kevin Crye was absent from today’s meeting due to medical reasons, according to the county. That left Supervisor Corkey Harmon as the lone holdout against the censure. He maintained his steadfast support for Curtis, despite attempts by both Plummer and Long to convince him of the necessity for the rebuke.
“It’s a no. It’s not going to happen. I’m not going to change my mind,” Harmon said, surprising many in the audience who are used to him voting in lockstep with either Kelstrom, Crye or both.
Harmon’s resistance was based on his claim that people he trusts have told him alternate versions of the events outlined in the investigation. He said he has to trust his gut as a business owner and manager, noting that he believes Curtis to be a good person though “a little different,” adding that he doesn’t think a censure will accomplish anything.
Before the censure was approved, about three dozen members of the public spoke out during public comment. Some issued strong statements against Curtis that outlined his missteps in office since last year, including his decision to exclude Shasta Scout from press releases, something the board unanimously condemned when it occurred.
Others praised Curtis’ approach to running elections while attacking other county officials, including County Counsel Joseph Larmour, who they referred to in various terms as a political enemy.
At times Curtis’ supporters also engaged in misogynistic commentary about the dangers posed by women working in the elections office, an apparent reference either to current female election staffers or former Assistant ROV Joanna Francescut, who defeated Curtis in the June election and is scheduled to take his seat in January.
Shasta County Office of Education Board member Teresa Roberts was among those who referenced the allegedly nefarious nature of the female gender.
“I’ve got five sons, and the one thing that I told them when they started to get into high school was watch out for the girls, because they can be the most vindictive, backstabbing, vicious creatures you can come across,” she said.
As she spoke, a student seated in the audience raised his hand in agreement with her as he nodded along.
Other public commenters lashed out against Kelstrom, warning him that he’s losing support for reelection as he faces a runoff this fall. Local election activist and staffer Patty Plumb had some of the strongest commentary against the current board chair.
“Chris, we campaigned hard for you, and you are shameless,” Plumb railed, pointing to Kelstrom. “You’ve lost your moral compass. You’ve been in bed with these whores at the state … and you don’t even have a clue what’s going on. I’m so embarrassed that you don’t even stand for anything.”
Kelstrom responded by saying that he’s taken attacks from those who support Curtis for the last year, including threats. He emphasized that his decision today was a reflection of how important it is to stand with the employees of Shasta County, noting that his own experiences with Curtis reveal what he sees as a lack of integrity.
Curtis also spoke during public comment, centering his remarks in part around his intent to sue the county, amid some laughter. “I’d like to thank everybody who came up to support me,” he said, “and I would like to thank the other half because you’re going to be essential for damages.”
He also made mention of alleged criminal activities by staffers in the elections office, saying he had evidence of employees “bypassing the security system and breaking into the locks.”
“So maybe, if you can’t believe like you should and give a fair chance to both sides, we’ll just have to show what the other side does,” Curtis said. He added that some election staffers are “bad people” who “should not be near any election.”
Shortly after being censured, Curtis invited members of the media back to the Market Street elections office, where he showed a video of the alleged security violation by election staffers. He allowed members of the media to record their own videos of security footage, which showed one member of his staff opening a door without the use of a keycard.
Asked if he had queried the employee on the reason they had entered the room or why they hadn’t used the keycard, Curtis said no.
“I never did, because you’ll find out more by not saying anything than by saying something,” Curtis explained, saying it’s impossible that employees would have had any excuse for “bypassing security and sneaking into” a room in the elections office.
He added that he’s provided the video to both the county administrative office and the FBI.
Shasta Scout reached out to both a union representative and a county spokesperson for comment, neither of which provided immediate responses on the record. Supervisor Plummer responded to news of Curtis’ next steps by saying his actions immediately after the censure underscore the reason for the formal rebuke.
“To the extent that employees may have done something wrong,” Plummer said, “there are appropriate procedures for a department head to go through. Going to the media without having spoken to those employees is not what county policy dictates, and this further reinforces the rationale for the censure.”
After discussing employee behavior with the media, Curtis took press representatives to an upstairs room at the elections office that’s been locked and sealed for several weeks. He said the space contains ballots from the June election which are awaiting examination by the FBI due to Curtis’ concerns that they “did not look or feel right.” Today, he added that the ballots didn’t smell right, either.
“I had facilities put this lock on and destroy the keys,” Curtis said. “So if someone comes … they have to bring a warrant and a bolt cutter. That’s the only way to get in that room.”
Asked if the FBI had responded to his queries regarding alleged election irregularities, Curtis claimed representatives of the federal agency were at the Court Street elections office today, adding that he had also spoken to the FBI about his concerns at the federal agency’s Redding office recently.
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Sacramento office responded to a request for comment this afternoon saying they could not confirm or deny any contacts from the public, or the potential existence of any investigation.
Asked whether the alleged ballot irregularities indicate he did not run a secure election this June, Curtis agreed, saying issues with ballot integrity are an election security problem he can’t solve because they occur before ballots come within his control. He added that he has no hope that the November election will be secure either, unless the federal government intervenes to address election integrity.
He suggested that President Donald Trump’s proposed SAVE America Act, would provide a solution, saying new voter registration and voter identification procedures, along with an end to mail-in ballots, are what is needed to create secure elections.
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I worked at the Shasta registrars office in 2022, I have 11 years experience in running elections and I’ve never heard a registrar talk the way this POS does, it looks like MAGA has infiltrated our lovely county and is looking to cause problems during our elections just like they did in the 2020 election. If curtis removes me from the voter database I will sue him into non-existence. The job of Registrar needs to be separate from other county entities, not a secondary position.
Why do all the County employees of the elections office get time off work to attend as lobbyists at every single meeting where Curtis is present? Don’t they have jobs to do? Is there a checkbox on the time off request form for “scream ‘whore!’ at supervisors meeting”? Isn’t this behavior by one county employee toward another violating county policy too? This woman seems unstable. Correcting her conduct would normally be done by her supervisor, but if Curtis refuses to do it then someone else needs to step in. It’s not normal, and it’s not ok.
I find it deeply amusing that even at this point in the game that the election deniers still have nothing of substance: a lot of hot air and accusations, but still not a single shred of evidence of mass election fraud.
Plummer did a nice job of explaining that Curtis would deserve the censure even if his only guilty act that could be proved was refusing to follow County policies regarding problems with staff. I’m also happy to see that Kelstrom found his moral compass and stood with County employees rather than remaining loyal to a loose cannon.
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As for Corky McCorkface—my own dim-witted supervisor—yet another episode of him stepping on a rake and getting hit in the face with the handle. To paraphrase he and Patty Numb: “This is a clear case of he-said, she-said. And we always believe the supervising male over the subordinate female, because Eve tempted Adam with the apple. It’s the nature of women to deceive men and bring them down.”
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The alleged break-in eliciting a padlocked door is exactly what it looks like: A desperate, silly attempt to rationalize his thoroughly unprofessional behavior. You really have to be a gold-plated paranoid MAGA rectal orifice to believe that the negative critiques of the public aimed at you—a public official—are setting you up to collect damages. LOL. Curtis is a serial loser who likely won’t be able to land a job at an airport Cinnabon after this.
I’d like to see if he turned the video cameras off at anytime and would like to see a video before the paranoia hit him and the one after to see if there is anything moved in the two videos, because a person like this would have no problem tampering with ballots and then blaming it on someone he knows isn’t MAGA. He wants Tina Peters here, a literal election felon. How appropriate a convicted election felon helping a future election felon.
It sounds like poor Curtis needs some mental health support.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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Good job Supervisor Long. You are my Distict representative and you represented well. You were extraordinary professional, polite, direct, factual, and logical with your statements about the censure and in your debate with Corkey. Well done and thank you.
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Bad look for Crye to chicken out of facing his responsibility to participate in this meeting. I’m pretty sure we pay him to be there. He has proven himself to be so void of integrity that I don’t trust for one minute that something medical required his absence in this one. Call me cynical.
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Ugly humans. Curtis doing his best to continually spread doubts and fears about our election system, which he was paid to repair and then having no shame in taking the County to the cleaners with legal fees.
Mrs. Plumb having no shame calling anyone a whore because she didn’t get her way (I’m embarrassed for her as a Christian. Patty – did you forget the part where Jesus said they will k ow us by our love?).
And Ms. Roberts disparaging women as vindictive, vicious, backstabbers. As if that would excuse Curtis’s choice of behavior. (Mean girls = free pass to be a bully?) What a stellar role model for our youth. I’d trust her as far as I could throw her.
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Thank you to Supervisors Long, Kelstrom, and Plummer for doing the right thing. It was needed on every level.
The most enjoyable part of this shit-show wind down is watching the local MAGA election fabulists and conspiracy-punch guzzlers go berserk as they see their power evaporate.
I don’t know how anyone can defend what has been going on in the ROV Office for the last year or so. And I agree that here should be a complete forensic audit and, preferably, an independent investigation into the internal affairs and workings of the office before Joanna accepts responsibility for her new role. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as we think.
Teresa Roberts sounds like a good example of one of the “vindictive, backstabbing, vicious creatures” she is complaining about. I guess it takes one to know one.
Going by her own statements regarding how she “schools” her own boys about girls I find it more than concerning that Teresa Roberts (don’t know her) sits on any school board whatsoever. “Teenaging” is hard enough to navigate for both boys and girls without a parent who sounds like they’re working out their own trust issues. Girls can be mean sometimes. So can boys. It’s high school for crissake. Good way to set up your sons to join the Manosphere, mom.
Just an FYI. Teresa Roberts sits on the Shasta County Office of Education Board and she is up for reelection. Think twice voters!
That was exactly my first thought! Irony at its best!
…and be sure and don’t vote for Teresa Roberts for SCOE in November.
What’s clear in all this is that Curtis is playing the victim and setting himself up to become the national darling of the election denial movement.
Pathetic flailing by a sad little man. Clint the Clown has a bad case of wannabe. He had visions of becoming a big fish in the little Shasta pond and spring boarding to a sinecure in the MAGA election denier universe. Instead, he will be a ridiculous footnote in an irrelevant political backwater. He is the worst possible thing for a MAGA to be: a loser.
Selah
You are absolutely correct. I have said since 2020 that Shasta County was being used as a testing ground for election deniers.
Curtis made his ridiculous claims about the June election around mid -June on his favorite media site. Wonder if he sealed those doors with duct tape back then for the FBI to be impressed with his high tech security work…..
Here’s the video
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1694681191649009/?fs=e&mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e
Clints future job prospects in any government job aren’t good. He made his bed. I appreciate Plummer taking the time to educate all. Yes..we will spend more legal money before the chaos is behind us…you can thank jones crye kelstrom and corkey for it…the negative residual effects will be felt for years. Send kelstrom packing…make sure crye can’t get into the city levers of power ever…defeat jones range …never let him see the light of day in politics again
Just one concern about Shasta Co. MAGA is their declared moral superiority and understanding of the Constitution, which they believe gives them a permission structure for belligerency and years of lecturing Shasta County on both. (I guess our local High Schools are better than I thought…?). As Steve K pointed out yesterday, these matters are in fact WAY OUT of this board’s jurisdiction — the legal authority to act over a particular subject matter, geographic area, or type of governmental decision — costing Shasta County hundreds of thousands of dollars in county resources, time, and energy, millions in equipment, and most importantly, an UNTOLD COST of social division and strife.
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Another concern is that Curtis often promotes Trump’s SAVE America Act (Measure B. light). Curtis threatened to sue Shasta County for being censored and sue if he was not appointed an attorney to defend and enact B (local MAGA’s version of the SAVE ACT), which violates the California and U.S. Constitutions, codes, and laws. As of August 12, 2026, local MAGA’s hero, Trump, has publicly threatened to use a national-security emergency to take over the election before the November 2026 midterms and to put ICE agents in polling places.
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While Curtis was being censored yesterday, Mr. Pillow (Trump’s candidate), well known to Shasta County as a comrade of Supervisor Crye and Clint Curtis (and a prolific election denier – liar who helped mainstream conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump), lost Minnesota’s Republican primary for governor!
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AND, while Trump’s national approval remains around 35–38%, with around 62% disapproving, both Crye and Curtis lost their elections; both were replaced by Safe and Sane Republicans in Shasta County. The SAVE ACT looks doomed in Congress; Measure B looks doomed in the courts!
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Could things be looking up?
The sun rises high into the sky toward dead of summer as the backwater evaporates female piranha begin to devour each other first . . .
Good news isn’t it! I always say that Clint Curtis was the tipping point.
I am excited for the day that election officials return to be “boring” news. This is just way more exciting than it should be. Did Patty Plumb really call Kelstrom a “whore of the state”? Who talks like that?
I wonder what about the ballots didn’t “smell right?” I’m gonna hazard a guess and say it reeked of suntan lotion and Drakkar Noir—definitely shady AF! Call Kash Patel!! lol!
So Curtis had this little vindication plan scheduled to present if he were censured. Shouldn’t he have been using his time to ensure that the November election will be secure, since he now says it won’t be.
His people appear not to have noticed these ballot issues when they did the office ballot inspection and count, which he filmed. Those ballots should have been set aside and inspected before they went into the machine and counted. Apparently, the Site Closers did not notice it either.
If entrance to various parts of the election office were entered only with key cards, how did anyone subvert the system and enter without using it. Perhaps it could happen if there were collusion between staff, one who entered legally and then made sure the door wasn’t locked which allowed the other person to enter. Well, I guess no because the cameras would have picked that up. He seems to imply that the office and access itself was not properly secured even though these security issues were under his control.
After the election, Curtis bragged about election transparency because of the cameras. The interviewer asked if he looked at those films. He specifically said he had not because there were thousand of hours of film. He further said that the film was available if someone later made claims about the election. Hummmmm!
In the interview above Curtis said he had no control over security as relates to the ballots until they came under his control. I believe that control would be when they were received and the staff physically handled them. Apparently these suspicious ballots are now in the special locked room. Does this mean that post election his staff, and probably just “his” staff, went over every single counted and suspicious ballot they pulled from counting? Is there now security over his custody of all of the ballots? He said he has incriminating evidence on the election period film. This would mean that someone sat and looked at all the thousands of hours of film then spliced together all of the parts which showed irregularities. If there are thousands of hours of film where would be thousands of hours spent by staff to review it. Let’s do the math. 1,000 hours of film would take one person 1,000 hours to review. With a work week at 40 hours a week this is what, 25 weeks per person per. I’m pretty sure there is not enough time between Election Day and now to have done this.
Who are these persons? Where did this happen? In a secure and transparent location? Was the inspection of the ballots and the entire footage review time filmed? If these were employees when did they have time to do this? It implies it was on the county’s dime. Did they do it off hours and get time and a half overtime pay? Clearly it would have been high illegal for the ballots and film to be taken from the office at any time to be reviewed off site.
Isn’t if funny that the more he opens his mouth about anything he just digs deeper and deeper down the hole he created in the first place.
Your fancy “logic” and “facts” are to a MAGAt like garlic and a crucifix are to a vampire. Clownie Curtis has been spewing baseless charges since he got the job.
Selah
I think what Clint did is exposed a corrupt liberal voting scenario that if investigated properly would expose how corrupt the BOS are in their support for tge liberals bringing the charges against Curist!
Spell check is your friend. Also, you forgot ALL CAPS!!!
Selah
Also, grammar and punctuation.
I mean, MAGA cultists are notoriously uneducated, so it’s on brand. Thank goodness MAGA is crumbling so they can focus on reading getting their GEDs.
Then perhaps you can explain how Moty was recalled using this system? Crye elected by the skin of his teeth? Crye beating back a recall by a hair’s breadth? Harmon, who has trouble mustering a cogent thought, beating a proven and competent representative for D3? Can you name one liberal who has been elected to local boards or councils this century using your purported liberal voting scenario? Didn’t think so.
Mary Rickert got elected and she is very liberal. She even voted for LGBTQ month while on the Board of Supervisors. Of course she lost to Corky Harmon so I guess that supports your argument.
Hey, Mary Rickert here. I’m a Republican and more conservative than Crye, Kelstrom and Harmon when it comes to your tax dollars. Me being liberal was a false talking point of the Harmon campaign. Going to James Gallagher’s fundraiser tonight in Red Bluff. See you there!
MAGAT MORONS STILL HAVE JOBS IN THIS COUNTY, TIME TO CLEAN THEM OUT, START WITH CURTIS.
The Board finally got something right. Staff do not deserve to be treated that way. Supervisor Harmon essentially is calling the Director of Support Services a liar or incompetent that he doesn’t believe her investigation report.
I’m very proud of Supervisor Kelstrom for finally standing up for the employees. Thanks to Supervisors Plummer and Long for holding their ground.
The increasingly frantic rantings by Clint Curtis conjure images of Captain Queeg obsessing over missing strawberries in the Caine Mutiny.
“There was a key!”
Selah
Clerk-elect Joanna Francescut must be proactive and request the County’s BOS an independent audit of the ROV office prior to being sworn into office in Jan 2027.
She is inheriting a real mess that could easily complicate her agenda – REMAINING SILENT is no longer an option for Mrs. Francescut IF she really cares about Shasta County residents.
I absolutely agree. Prior to being sworn into office, a thorough independent audit of the ROV office should be conducted so that problems left-over by Curtis cannot be blamed on Joanna.
Plus she needs to clean house of all the election denier clowns Curtis hired to destroy trust in our elections.
I thought of that too? But I believe they are union and there has to be just cause and all other procedures. I can’t imagine the union would happy about jumping into that one, but they’d have no choice. They were part of the evidence provided about the hostile environment Curtis and staff created in the first place. It would be interesting to see if they all just resigned, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them wanted to stay and create the hostile work environment for Joanna that supposedly her employees caused for Curtis. Although, I must say, based on the kinds of things they say and how they act at the Board of Supervisors meetings it wouldn’t be hard to document their hostile behavior. Joanna would certainly be on top of taking any misbehavior right or supervision problem properly up the chain of command.
I believe when Joanna comes back they will still be within their 1-year probationary period and can be let go with no reason given.
I agree. An independent audit of the ROV office before taking the oath is a necessity. Perhaps the FBI can do that. Mr. Curtis is sounding more like Trump than Trump if that is possible.
Clint Curtis created the hostile work environment and participated in threatening county employees. When he is censured he then brings up this , probably false accusation. This tells most people who Clint Curtis is . He gets caught doing illegal activity towards County employees, then when he is confronted and censured he threatens not only people who work in the ROV office , but looks directly at people in the Board room today who supported his censure and threatens them. He needs to be removed from that office immediately! Oh wait he cannot even be at the ROV office with out an escort to ensure that he doesn’t threaten or intimidate the employees further. And he is looking to get a pay out from said lawsuits that he claims he is filing. Go back to Florida you grifter!
The BOS need to fire him and then fight it off in court.
Unfortunately, they don’t have the legal authority to fire the jackass. It’s a non-starter.
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I look forward to the day when this grifter cons some other community of turnips and rutabagas to hire him, and we’re watching his taillights disappearing over th horizon.
I like that the author focused on the misogynistic comments. It was disheartening to hear such sentiments repeated. But slowly but surely the voice of the people comes through their county representatives.
But if those women, say such awful things about women, they are including themselves and every woman among their family and friends in that description. Talk about low self esteem.
So what is his fake evidence this time? An out of context video? What’s the date stamp on the video?
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Shame on anyone who still listens to this grifter.
So corkscrew refuses to be confused by the facts, and clownie clint counted ballots even though they didn’t look, feel, or smell right. His threatened lawsuit will be interesting — expensive but interesting. January with its again normal RoV office and BoS majority can’t come soon enough.
After the election and he lost didn’t he promise to file a bunch of lawsuits similiar to the ones he is promising now. I’d be interested if anyone knows if he has filed any lawsuits since the elections. Wonder what came of his supposed appeals to the Sec of State. Should someone let him know that virtually every lawsuit over elections up to current have been loosers. Has he followed the trashing by the courts of the SAVE act.
I’ll be interested if there are any “leaks” from the ROV office about the local FBI agents who were supposedly at yesterday’s court Street office, per Curtis. I hope he took them over to the elections office so he could show them what his brouhaha is about and his new security system, a Yale lock.
Wait, if he said he threw away the keys and to get in anyone just needs a bolt cutter wouldn’t that mean anyone with a bolt cutter can open it up and replace the lock with the same kind of lock and throw away the keys. Then replace the duct tape since there are pictures of how the duct tape was applied.
I await the arrival of January with bated breath, hoping we can put Clint and his histrionics in the rear view once and for all.
It’s great for Shasta County that soon Clint Curtis will no longer be a member of our local government. We imported a partisan conspiracy theorist and he undertook a series of expensive, illegal, and irresponsible actions to disrupt Shasta County elections that were already working well.
Joanna Francescut was the right choice for Shasta County and will provide a professional and nonpartisan approach going forward. I hope the Board of Supervisors learns from this mistake in personnel selection and sticks to dedicated public servants rather than imported activists.
I’m also concerned by the misogynistic comments of Shasta County Office of Education Board member Teresa Roberts. Do we want someone overseeing our educational system who expresses such derogatory views toward half our students?
Apparently Ms. Roberts didn’t have to take the Sexual Harassment courses all teachers and substitutes are required to take.
Is she part of the LaBarbera Moms for Liberty lunatics?
Selah
….and don’t forget to remind our sane and sensible supervisors that Chriss Street is still lurking in the hallway ready to become attached to an unsuspecting supervisor for another $40,000. of wasted county funds for research we never heard of. Send them both back to Orange County as a 3 stooges re-do act.