Shasta’s New Election Official Punts on Budget Questions, Considers Using Volunteers for Ballot Reconciliation, Voter Canvassing
Clint Curtis told supervisors he’ll need a new building in order to implement the election process he envisions. Some of Curtis’s statements during the hearings about the use of volunteers create concerns for voter access and intimidation, the Secretary of State’s Office says.
Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis appeared before county supervisors this week during budget hearings. His presentation about the election office’s approximately $5 million budget raised more questions than it answered, but Curtis says he’ll have additional information for supervisors soon.
The ROV, who’s never worked in an elections office before, began his role in Shasta just a few weeks ago after being appointed by a majority of county supervisors. Since then he’s had time to soft-launch a re-election campaign and file campaign paperwork but hasn’t managed to work out the budget details needed to implement the plan he pitched to supervisors before he was hired.
That plan, Curtis has said, mainly involves “filming everything” during the ballot counting process, a step he believes will help build trust in elections across partisan lines.
This week’s budget hearings highlighted a clear shortcoming in his approach when he told supervisors for the first time that he can’t actually implement the filming process he promised during his interview until he’s able to obtain a different building with more appropriate space. Curtis informed supervisors he hopes to find such a building and make it work for the election office for the same cost as what he’s paying in rent now.
“The building should come in at about the same price as what we’re leasing,” Curtis claimed. “If it doesn’t, we’ll have to come and make an appeal, but we don’t want to spend a lot more than we already are.”
Along with budget requests, Curtis also presented ideas for budget savings, including printing all ballots in house, eliminating as many ballot drop boxes as legally allowed and bringing in volunteers for tasks normally conducted by election staff. He specifically suggested using volunteers for ballot reconciliation, a process that involves tracking ballots throughout the election process to ensure every vote is counted.
Jim Patrick, the Deputy Secretary of State for Communications responded to Shasta Scout’s questions about the legality of such a policy by saying it “sounds like a bad idea” and “has the potential to intimidate voters and possibly disenfranchise people who should be voting.”
He responded similarly to another idea Curtis suggested, using volunteers as “boots on the ground” to check for voter roll accuracy door-to-door. Patrick said the Secretary of State’s Office is “very concerned” about the idea and is “not going to let anything happen that prevents people from voting.”
“Canvassing specifically,” he explained, “has potential issues because then you’re putting people with a vested interest in an election standing in front of people who might feel the exact opposite about the upcoming election. And that can be a recipe for problems…. (and) go sideways in a number of different ways.”
If people have concerns about illegal voting, Patrick added, “they can contact our office or the local DA’s office. We have an investigation team who are paid professionals who will determine whether someone is voting illegally.”
Yesterday, June 12, county supervisors provided preliminary approval for Curtis’ budget, which does not yet reflect the extra costs that Curtis says he’ll incur as he implements his new approach to elections. The ROV said he’ll come back to supervisors with more details on those additional costs within thirty days.
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Since ROV stupid wants to now get rid of machines and take us back to pre-technology era, shall we also do our hand counting using our fingers to keep track? How about we also give up out computers and make all documents hand written (we saw how well that went with Hobbs and her dismissed lawsuits). Why are we going to go backwards again?
Use the old courthouse for the ROV new building. there’s plenty of room there to take pictures of ballots and have election duty volunteers.
Hey Happy…apparently you aren’t aware that the Old Court House has EPA and earthquake issues, do a little research before making non-factual statements. Pictures of ballots and use of vols are not kosher, according to SoS and Atty Gen.
We talk about elections while Gavin Newsome lets illegals burn down LA.
RayRay…Sorry LA is not burning down, by any group. Did you got your info from some No. Korean hacker ? What is happening is the unlawful use of Marines and the CA National Guard, against the wishes of the Governor and LA Mayor.
do you people EVER STOP lying?
Transparency is critical in elections. I expect a new building would allow the office to better design how ballots are processed securely and staff are kept safe and free from intimidation while improving the public’s ability to observe.
But, filming every step of ballot processing unfortunately in these contentious times does not guarantee trust in the integrity of the election process.
Video of election workers following the law and procedures has been misinterpreted by people who are looking for evidence of election fraud.
– A mint passed between two election workers is alleged to be a thumb drive containing fake ballots.
– A ballot bag pulled out from underneath a table where it was stored during a break in ballot processing is alleged to be proof that fake ballots were added to the count.
– A person depositing their own and family members’ ballots into a ballot drop box is alleged to be a ballot harvesting mule.
– An election worker scanning a batch of ballots three times and cleaning the ballot scanner in between because it rejected some of the ballots is alleged to be padding the results even though the worker only saved the batch once.
If filming election processes in Shasta County can improve trust in elections without intimidating voters, without exposing confidential voter information, and without putting staff in danger, it could be worth exploring.
that is just a bunch of maga hooey!!! NO such thing happened and you maga’s know it! We had an elected ROV that was above reproach and your nasty lying insinuations that are NOT the truth.
Arlene:
I think you may have misread my comment. I have the utmost respect for the prior elected ROV, and I am apolitical.
Exactly! Why fear or litigate when we haven’t tried??? Because “they” have something to hide
Mr. Harmon – At first I read your post as he deserves a chance to “fix” our elections, which is what so many of us are worried about. And I almost chuckled at the play in words.
Then I realized you might be indicating our elections process needs to be corrected.
I don’t think the vocal “save our elections” group has ever really presented a clear list of productive, specific issues with proposed, viable action plans. There is mainly a resounding cry that the system is broken, everyone involved in the process is corruot, and our Democracy is at stake. The outcry seems to be more about perception and feeling than facts.
What we do hear is that the system is “rigged” when someone is a sore loser. But when Crye and Harmon and those in the vocal whiner group win, it appears that (apparently magically) the system for counting those races were handled appropriately.
Please share with us a list of specifics about what needs to be “fixed” and propose potential solutions/action items.
The only real issue I’ve specifically heard is that the voter rolls aren’t clean enough. No surprise there. People move, people lie, and cleaning data is extremely time consuming.
Isn’t there is a process for investigating inaccurate addresses to get corrections made. And that wouldn’t that require law enforcement involvement?
Honestly, if the County can’t even keep their own internal phone book accurate, what chance do we really have that anyone could address the moving around of renters, people lie about their primary residence, etc? Seems like each address on the voter roll that someone thinks is fraudulent/inaccurate would have to be investigated, so we don’t risk carelessly taking away someone’s vote to right because we’re “sure” something isn’t right.
So instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, too bad some reasonable person hasn’t added a unit of staff specifically devoted to cleaning up the data? I’m pretty sure that would require Sheriff staff being added to specifically work on the task as well. How about we do that, and have sufficient staff to address actual errors and investigate suspected fraud? They could even continue to work on accuracy over time rather than throwing money away on cameras and a building that still won’t address the issue of clean data?
Don’t like mail in ballots? Let’s see how you feel about it when you’re homebound or unable to walk/stand long enough for in person voting but really wish your vote could count. Whiners don’t realize they could be disenfranchised someday, basically being discriminated against because of a disability.
Come up with some concrete problems and solutions that are realistic. Stop supporting people with agendas to be powerful and famous who just throw our taxpayer money away. Let’s give problem solving a shot.
Prior to Mr. Curtis’s appointment as ROV, I’ve had zero concerns about the fairness, accuracy, and legality of Shasta County elections as carried out by employees using standard operating procedures. Using “volunteers” in the capacities described in this article freaks me out big time.
Totally agree. Besides the fact that it’s not legal do you really want the likes of G., Big Mustard, Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hobbs, shreaking Chihuahuas, and the Hair Bear Aqua Net quintet counting our ballots under the supervision of a law suit magnet and shyster lawyer?! No confidence in the Crye-Jones gang and their cronies and camp followers.
As far as I can tell, this is a set-up to flip the elections to the Crye-Jones conspiracy camp and away from transparency, fair play, and the will of the people.
thank you for the absolute truth Robert!
It’s important to understand that Clint Curtis, a fraud, is only here for one thing: to spread lies, conspiracies, and misinformation for the Jones, Crye, Kelstorm, and Corkey (JCKC) Cartel locally, with national and international exposure. All of them use taxpayer money to support the vision of a liar, a convicted sex perp, and 34-count convicted felon fraudster, who is working hard, with the help of people like Jones, Crye, Kelstorm, Corkey, Hobbs, Curtis, Street, Plumb, and Dr. Mu, to install a far-right, authoritarian ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy called Trumpism and MAGA. The problem the Cartel has is that Shasta County will never be their New California or the State of Jefferson fantasy, where Trumpism is the social, political, and economic goal. We are and always will be Shasta County, within the State of California. Therefore, Mr. Curtis will be closely watched, and the State of California will stop many of his delusional ideas from fruition. That, however, won’t stop the Cartel from spending millions of tax dollars on their fanaticism, at taxpayers’ expense, until we vote them out.
Never anything positive to say. You have a lot of hate in you.
Curtis is freakin’ talking about putting your vote in the hands of a partisan hack (volunteer). There is plenty to be negative about — because a waste of your and my tax dollars means less $$$ to go for other important things. The negativity brought on by the majority of the BOS, both the previous panel and now current one due to Harmon is hard for me to understand. Have you called out the leaders of this hate?
PS- I use mail in vote not because of the obvious (disability) but because I travel a lot in my retirement and often am out of town on election day. Are you thinking that I shouldn’t get to vote because I am physically not present in CA ?
If this and other troubling news and events don’t cause fear and anxiety for county residents, then Curtis has achieved his goal.
Do we really expect the volunteers to adhere to any rules/ laws and not project their bias? And filming and or recording the entire process to ensure accuracy? That alone would be a chilling message to staff, volunteers and the voting public should they choose a candidate that doesn’t identify with Curtis’ choice or his vision.
This nightmare is not going to end well for those of us who are moderate and want what is best and fair for all.
Whatever happened to the 1.5 million grant, I only remember a email scandal and nothing after. When the grant was considered for buying a new building, facilities for hand counting were expected to exceed the cost of the grant. Curtis would want to purchase such a building because good ol trump is going to change election law and let them hand count. Even with a federal judge just recently blocking trump’s executive order. They shouldn’t be making building decisions based on a hope and prayer that trump will come through for them.
They spent a large chunk of it replacing a Cadillac Dominion voting system with a stripped down Yugo system from Hart InterCivic. They bought new drop boxes with cameras attached which Curtis now wants to get rid of. Bottom line is the money was squandered to make election deniers happy.
Dominion has been found to be NOT a Cadillac system! Not to mention, if it is such a Cadillac system, why does it take a month to get the results! Please stop reaching into the cracker box
It takes a month to get final count due to the canvas, or in lay terms, hand count audit. We also allow time for ballots postmarked no later than Election Day to be delivered to Election Office, most from veterans serving overseas. Dominion is by far the must trusted vendor of choice in California. 39 0f 58 California counties contract with them.
Well Jon, Dominion got $787 million out of Fox. So, I guess it’s not a Cadillac system. It more like aa Rolls Royce or Bently.
You are so wrong, Dominion HAS WON every slander lawsuit they have filed, NO merit to the bs lies. There was NEVER any worries about rigged elections before trump and putin rigged and installed trump in 2016! President Biden won by such a HUGE margin in 2020, the lies by trump were so obviously false but his little minions stayed right behind him and now he’s been installed by elon’s money. maga’s support a felon, such a shame for our country.
It is interesting that Curtis is suggesting he might use volunteers to do tasks that are typically performed by staff. There are rules that make it very clear volunteers are not allowed to do work that is intended to be done by paid staff.
Apparently Curtis hasn’t had time to consider what rules apply might apply to his bright ideas and what is and isn’t an option based on the County’s own policies.
That’s because he and his sponsors do not GAF about making or keeping things legal.
Maybe it should be treated like jury duty! Maybe people that they pick should have served on juries and are on the voter roles
Jon: An idea that legislators could consider.
The BOS is doing a great job of breaking the County.
That is the stated goal of the billionaire that has financed this whole debacle. Due to the unethical actions of these men (previously Jones and now the majority), they are allowing Anselmo to complete his hatred of the county by breaking it.
I know him personally, this is not the motive whatsoever! You’re absolutely 100% wrong! Your assumptions are based on sheer emotion and supposition!
Then you tell us what his motive really is since you claim to know him personally.
His motives were and are obvious. He couldn’t buy and bully his way around our building regulations. So, he took his little red wagon and went home swearing to teach us a lesson.
bahahahaha