Shasta’s ballot and Voter Information Guide contain numerous typos, at least one of which could decrease voter access
The typos include extra or missing words and a number of misspellings, as well as incorrect dates, including an error related to when mail-in ballots are supposed to be received by the elections office.
Ballots for the June 2 primary started being mailed out last week by the Shasta elections office, but they contain several typos.
Some typos are spelling mistakes, such as the spelling of the word “affect” as “affet,” and “next” as “net.”
Other mistakes are more significant, including an incorrect reference to the end of a term. In the section about the District 1 U.S. Representative, the ballot at first states the correct term end date — Jan. 3, 2027 — but then lists the end date incorrectly, as Jan. 2, later on the ballot.
There is an even more significant error in Shasta’s Voter Information Guide, which was mailed out to voters in recent weeks: It states that all postmarked ballots must be received by the elections office by June 2.
This is not true. According to the California Secretary of State, “Mailed ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received not later than 7 days after Election Day.”
The Secretary of State advises voters to mail their ballots at least five days before Election Day to ensure it’s postmarked by Election Day. If mailing on Election Day, the agency advises voters to get a hand-stamped postmark from a postal employee in a U.S. Post Office.
Shasta Assistant Registrar of Voters Brent Turner declined to answer questions about the process of writing and proofreading ballots, as well as whether he’s concerned that the incorrect date in the Voter Information Guide may affect voter accessibility.
Turner said this isn’t the first time that typos have been included on ballots, and that the office will try to “do better” in the future. He emphasized that he doesn’t want voters to think of the typos as a reason not to vote.
“That would be a disservice to the public,” he said.
Turner emphasized that voters shouldn’t be concerned about the integrity of the elections office following the typos, saying “ballot safety does not play into a typo.” He added that the elections office is “fully functional” and said that he feels it has encountered an unusual level of scrutiny from the public over the typos.
He also noted that the order of candidates on the ballot was correct this time in comparison to previous elections. He’s referring to a situation in 2024 where candidate names were not ordered correctly on the March 2024 primary ballot. In that election, the name of local election activist Laura Hobbs was incorrectly listed after that of current Supervisor Allen Long. After she gained only 19% of the vote in the primary, she sued the ROV’s office over the mistake, saying it contributed to her loss.
When the matter went to court, former Assistant ROV Joanna Francescut testified, acknowledging that she had failed to adequately check her staff’s work and taking responsibility for the mistake. The judge dismissed the lawsuit, calling Francescut’s mistake “normal and unintentional” and saying that Hobbs’ attorney had failed to demonstrate any proof that the mistake caused her loss.
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The article states “Election Day” is the real deadline, not June 2. But it never states when Election Day is. Any help?
Elections Code 13302(b) – the State political parties can submit letters of endorsements to be printed in the County Voter Guide for candidates of Voter-Nominated offices – key is “Voter-Nominated”. Please see under American Independant (sic) where Curtis ADDED Crye, Kelstrom, and his own name: Supervisors and the Count Clerk are NOT Voter-Nominated offices. ALSO – the CA State Republican Party endorsed NO ONE – yet Curtis decided to print the Shasta County Republican list of endorsements in their place. He didn’t add any other candidates’ endorsements to any other lists?!
Illegal. Unethical. Using taxpayers dollars to campaign!!
From the White House to Shasta County to all places in between the MAGA game plan has reached final maturity and we can see the results of eliminating qualified, competent, experienced government workers and replacing them with inexperienced, unqualified and incompetent MAGA loyalists. Time to remove them all and move on.
One can only hope that this latest version of a clown show is almost over. But, I fear it’s not and the typos, reduced ballot boxes and internal investigations are preemptive and intentional by the Curtis Clown Show to occupy the ROV office after the election while his lawsuits are proceeding.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, buckle up, this is just the beginning.
Out here in the hinterlands, we have no more drop boxes. It’s either trust the mail or show up in person on election day. There a lot of ranchers and farmers who don’t have the extra time on election day to vote and who don’t trust rural mail.
The second issue is that Clint is on the ballot and he’s counting the votes? Sadly, he’s lost our trust as well.
The BOS led us into this ugly quagmire and left us to fend for ourselves.
It’s up to us to right this ship. Both the BOS and the ROV need replacing.
Honest mistakes were made and the responsible staff will strive for elusive perfection. In context the typos were noted as minor and these type of errors are unfortunately not unusual. There is no spellcheck availability within the program though I have now suggested workarounds. The staff handling this ballot task is very experienced and have navigated the process previously with many elections under their belt. The Shasta Election Dept workers always strive to do better in the future !!
The number of typos on the ballot is inexcusable, yet you make excuses. No worries though. You will be unemployed soon after the election and the people of Shasta County will no longer be forced to deal with you.
Mr. Turner, was a “very experienced staffer” responsible for the voter information guide where the mistake that could impact voter access was made? And did either you or Mr. Curtis proofread either the ballot or the VIG?
Typos just suggest laziness and sloppiness in your quality-control processes. The kind of unprofessionalism that would get you fired by clients in the private sector.
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Publishing blatant misinformation suggests possible deliberate intent to mislead voters to affect the election. That’s criminal.
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If I’m on the jury and your defense is, “We and our appointed lackeys are both phenomenally lazy and grossly incompetent,” I’m calling bullshit. I’m going assume that you’re lying to cover your asses, and that it was a plot to rig the election. I’m voting guilty on all counts.
Well said.
How about as a workaround an actual person to proofread your work?
Mr Turner, Shasta county voters want YOU to do better.
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With you it’s always “staff” this or “staff” that. Why don’t YOU take some ownership instead of always trying to place the burden and responsibility on staff?
The problem with the post mark date on a ballot is caused by the Post Office. In rural California, mail is collected locally and then sent to regional centers for processing and dating. Shasta County mail is sent to Sacramento. This takes a day. So you could put your ballot into a mail box on election day in Burney and it would be dated in Sacramento the day after election. Late ballots don’t count. During the last election the State of California ran ads about this problem. I spoke about it at the BoS meeting. At that time Clint Curtis hadn’t said a word about this issue. He didn’t cause it, but he ignored it. Having the ballot hand canceled on Election Day at your local post office will work.
Hey Brent
Can’t you even hit spell check or grammar correct…a computer does it all today
Its YOUR responsibility
Joanna had the gumption to take responsibility for errors on her watch.. why not you and Clint?
The attitude towards and accusations of impropriety without showing evidence by the previous ROV made by Clint Curtis and his supporters have brought this scrutiny on themselves. They should not be surprised. VOTE FOR JOANNA FRANCESCUTT!!
So Brent Turner thinks an incorrect deadline typo in the Voter’s Guide regarding when mail-in ballots are due is no big deal. Cool. Cool. Vote Francescutt.
Par for the course with this clown show..
Illiterate, incompetent clowns reminiscent of their glorious leader, Temu Hitler.
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The mail-in ballot due-by-Jan-2 “mistake” is a big one. I put “mistake” in quotation marks to convey irony—I think it was intentional. First, there’s the general animosity of MAGA mental midgets toward mail-in voting, in spite of its popularity. Why not illegally narrow the window for that mode and maybe disenfranchise some voters? Second, receiving the ballots earlier than required by law gives the ROV’s office more time to count them. Maybe Flint Flirtus is anticipating that his election processes are going to be a ponderous shit-show, and he wants the extra time.
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These rubes are too dumb to gauge that mail-in and drop-off voting are heavily favored in the more remote, conservative areas of the county. By reducing the availability of remote drop boxes and illegally truncating the due date for mail-in ballots, they’re likely going to disproportionately disenfranchise their own MAGA mouth-breathers.
This is the way Clint Curtis improves Shasta County elections? Mistakes do happen, but never in such abundance without there being a more serious underlying problem.
Misspelled words?—Oh My God!!!–products of our Liberal educational system no doubt.—Wrong date ballots?– encourages voters to get their ballot in on time.
It’s more than typos Nick. Look at page 11, at top. It says “24 Drop Box Locations”. The truth is there are only four. When Tom Toller was ROV there were thirteen. Clint is gaslighting us saying there are 24. Unless you can tell us the secret locations of the other 20? Is there one at your house? Patti Plumb’s? Bev Gray? Dan Ladd? Laura Hobbs? Are there really only four? Does he understand we taxpayers pay the postage on those that are mailed back because he got rid of nine drop boxes? Is he wasting our money? One thing he is honest about are the long lines voters will face due to him getting rid of the electronic poll pads (bottom of page 11).
Flint Flirtus, our shit-eating-grin of an ROV in semi-human form, was not educated in liberal California.
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Getting ballots in “on time” is defined by state law, not by the whims of a smirking, carpetbagging ROV whose only qualification is that he’s an election fabulist.
The spin never stops with you guys. Guess what? It’s not up to Brent Turner, Clint Curtis (or you) to decide that printing incorrect dates is ok because it will spur on voters to mail their votes in early. In fact, that would be illegal. Following the rule of law is for capital “P” Patriots; wearing American flag t-shirts is meaningless and an insult to our flag which was not meant to be worn, but flown.
Isn’t that funny Nick…if there was even the slightest mistake when it was a previous ROV, then you cried about how it was intentional and malicious.
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Now according to you, any mistake under our current ROV is just fine.
If you believe these are the last of the mistakes, you may be in for quite a surprise come election day. Stay tuned, folks — the situation continues to raise serious concerns. If you never worried about election integrity before, well you should now. Designed chaos!