Two hours after polls have closed, Shasta County continues to await first results 

At 10 p.m., two hours after polls closed across Shasta County, members of the press and the public continued to await preliminary election results from votes counted in the days leading up to the election. 

Speaking to the press, Shasta Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis said the delay is due to his not having enough staff to both run needed computer processes at the Market Street elections office and pick up ballots at drop boxes, which overflowed several times throughout the day. 

Asked why the numerous extra staffers he’s hired over recent months didn’t handle the pickups at the ballot drop boxes, Curtis said: “Because I’m stupid. So when I see it needs to be done, I just do it myself.”

He estimated the ongoing wait time for results at an additional half hour after 10 p.m., saying there are additional computer processes that need to occur.

As the night wears on, ballots have begun arriving from the polls, but no processing of those ballots has begun as staff, the press and the public await the results from votes processed over recent weeks. 

This is a developing story.