What’s changed — and what hasn’t — since Clint Curtis was appointed to lead Shasta County’s elections office

In his first year on the job, appointed Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis has made major changes within the elections office. 

He’s restructured how and where public observers can view election staff at work and livestreamed a portion of ballots as they’re processed. He’s also hired a number of new election staffers, including an activist who launched two unsuccessful lawsuits against previous ROVs, and another who has pushed to stop vote certification and is involved in a political movement to partition California. These shifts have garnered steady support from a small but vocal segment of Shasta’s voter base. 

At the same time, he’s alienated a different portion of Shasta County’s electorate. Curtis’ removal of drop-boxes, his at-times hostile relationship with the press, two investigations that have found substantiated evidence of misconduct toward staff and his partisan approach to what is legally defined as a nonpartisan elected position have all drawn immense criticism from another segment of voters.

When Curtis was chosen for his role in 2025, he shared an ambitious vision: He hoped to usher in a new era at the county’s beleaguered elections office. One year in — and a day before Curtis’ future in Shasta will be decided by voters at the polls — here’s where things stand. 

Access to observation 

One of the most visible shifts Curtis has made is in the aesthetic of the elections office. He kept one of his earliest promises to “tear down the wall,” a reference to a metal partition and gate that used to provide security for areas where ballots were processed, beyond which the public required accompaniment by an election staffer. 

He also created a new observer space, decorated with American flags and digital monitors, where live footage of ballots being processed by election staff can be shown during elections. From this observation space, members of the public can look out onto a relatively open floorplan to observe the work of elections.

In public remarks, Curtis took great pride in the creation of this new observation space and some associated procedures — declaring shortly after the November election to have restored trust in the election process. 

But the view from the new observer area is not dissimilar to that under previous election officials, who provided access through glass windows and open doorways to observe a more segmented ballot processing area upstairs. 

Like before, today’s observers sit some distance from ballot processing, now with their views of election staff partially obscured by a half-wall of monitors.

Verifying vote counts 

Curtis has also implemented a livestream process, which is intended to provide full transparency to the public by sharing views of ballots onscreen both before and after they’re fed into vote tabulators. 

It’s a process that’s been beset by complications. In November 2025, community members and reporters faced ongoing technical problems when trying to access the livestream on the night of Election Day. The archived livestream available today provides little contextual or supplementary information to help viewers identify what ballots are being processed on film, making it impossible to determine the accuracy of machine counts for ballots captured by cameras.

It’s also unclear how many ballots were ever shown onscreen in the elections office. Those with identifying marks cannot, by law, be publicly shown. And neither can vote-by-mail ballots processed before the election. Whether or not those vote-by-mail ballots were ever filmed after Election Day and included in the archived footage online remains unknown. 

Curtis has not yet responded to a request for more information, and Assistant ROV Brent Turner told Shasta Scout he was not the appropriate person to answer questions about livestreaming. This year’s ballot includes twice as many ballots cards as the ballot for the last election, and Curtis confirmed today that’s it’s taking significantly longer to film, saying he’s still not concerned about the overall time that will be needed to process ballots.

So far this election, about 15% of Shasta’s registered voters have already had their ballots processed, although results won’t be tabulated and released until after 8 p.m. on Election Day. No landing page is available yet for the livestreaming of ballots that’s expected to occur after the polls close on June 2, but a spokeperson for the elections office said the system will be up and working within the next 24 hours. 

Access to information 

Other transparency measures have deteriorated under Curtis. He’s eliminated the distribution of emails that provided the public with information about when observable activities would begin and end. He also ceased email distribution of press releases after unsuccessfully targeting Shasta Scout’s media access, a move which earned him unanimous condemnation from county supervisors. While the elections office continues to periodically upload press releases to its website, the press is not notified in real time when there is an update concerning elections.

Curtis has also regularly failed to provide an official voice on election-related matters in the public’s interest. For example, when the three of five trustees resigned from the Cascade Union Elementary School District, the ROV failed to provide an official response to questions from the media related to the vacancies and how they should be filled. The closest thing to a response came from Assistant ROV Turner, who suggested asking the Tehama County ROV. 

Access to ballot drop boxes and the use of electronic poll pads

Citing concerns about security, Curtis has also reduced Shasta’s number of ballot drop boxes to the legal minimum of four, eliminating nine drop boxes, some of which served isolated voters in rural stretches of the county. In recent campaign messaging on social media, he’s discouraged the use of drop boxes at all, encouraging community members to vote by mail instead.

He also eliminated the use of electronic poll books, saying this week on social media that he believes they can act unilaterally and may add voters to the registration system on their own. He’s provided no proof to back these claims. The elimination of poll pads during the November 2025 election slowed poll processes, impacting voter access. He hopes encouraging the use of provisional ballots this election will help. 

Partisanship 

Departing from previous ROVs, Curtis has also brought a visibly partisan approach to the elections office, a strong contrast to former election officials who have approached the job from a strictly nonpartisan position.

Curtis has openly declared his party affiliation and sponsored a partisan event in support of a specific ballot measure. He’s also hosted a tour of the elections office for political candidates who are on the ballot in Shasta, using the opportunity to accuse his predecessors — which would include his campaign opponent Joanna Francescut — of committing fraud without providing evidence. 

As recently as late last month, Curtis held a press conference outside of the election office, where he made only a meager attempt to prevent one of his own staff from engaging in a campaign speech that may constitute illegal electioneering, which California law defines in part as the “audible dissemination of information that advocates for or against any candidate on the ballot” within 100 feet of a polling place during an election.

Here’s where things stand

Tomorrow, June 2, voters will select their future elections official, deciding between Curtis and former Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut — and demonstrating whether a majority of Shasta’s electorate approves or disapproves of the changes Curtis has made to the elections process so far. Regardless of whether Curtis is elected to hold the role he was appointed to last year, he’ll continue to run the elections office through 2026.

That’s not an inconsequential role. Before the year’s end, there are two more elections on the horizon: a special election to select deceased congressman Doug LaMalfa’s replacement until January, and the general election in November.

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