Latest news with #ShastaCountyBoardofSupervisors
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Shasta set to hire Clint Curtis, who has no elections experience, to run county's elections
The Shasta County Board of Supervisors is expected on Tuesday night to appoint an East Coast lawyer with no elections oversight experience to run the elections department. Clint Curtis, 66, of Titusville, Florida, would be the county's third clerk and registrar of voters in two years. Tuesday's expected vote will come nearly two weeks after a split board voted to appoint Curtis pending a background check. Supervisors Kevin Crye, Corkey Harmon and Chris Kelstrom voted to appoint Curtis. Supervisors Allen Long and Matt Plummer favored appointing Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut and did not vote for Curtis. According to a report submitted to the board last week, Curtis passed his background check. If appointed, Curtis will hold office through 2026. Francescut has said she plans to seek election to the position in June 2026. Tuesday's meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at the Shasta Lake City Council chambers because the supervisors chambers in downtown Redding are undergoing technical, visual and audio upgrade. Curtis' would-be appointment has drawn questions from Long and Plummer, and residents who support Francescut about Curtis' qualifications for the job. The potential appointment also has spurred demonstrations In voting against hiring Curtis, Plummer questioned the lawyer's experience as an election lawyer and champion for voting reform against him. "He's had 25 years to travel the world, travel the country, getting people to overturn election related issues that he alleges, and to incorporate his system and not one community, we heard him earlier today, not one community in the whole country has done it. Now, I'm for trying new things, but why would we try something that everyone else has soundly rejected?" Plummer said at the April 30 meeting. Protesters picketed outside the Ninja Coalition HQ, one of the more visible private businesses owned by Board of Supervisors Chairman Crye, because he spearheaded the move to appoint Curtis as the county's next top elections official. In voting for Curtis on April 30, Crye, Kelstrom and Harmon said they had nothing against Francescut but argued it was time for a change. Supervisors Allen Long and Matt Plummer wanted Francescut for the job. 'I can't think of anybody better, well personally, maybe a Republican, but I can't think of anybody better ... to right what I think is wrong with elections,' Crye said of Curtis. Curtis advocates for counting votes by hand, but he said at the April 30 meeting that in California it's against the law to do that in counties the size of Shasta, and he vowed to follow the law. Rather, Curtis said he would focus on transparency by increasing the number of cameras set up in the elections office so observers can better watch the ballot tabulation. Nearly a year ago, Curtis and Francescut also were finalists for the county registrar of voters job. But on a 3-2 vote in June 2024, supervisors chose Tom Toller, a semi-retired former prosecutor with no elections management experience. Toller retired last month, citing health concerns. David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He's part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Clint Curtis, elections skeptic, is Shasta elections chief finalist
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Northern California county's new top vote counter doubts voting machine accuracy
An out-of-state lawyer with a history of connections with debunked election theories and no experience managing a voting department was picked on April 30 to run a Northern California county's elections. The Redding Record Searchlight, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to hire Clint Curtis, an attorney licensed in New York but who lives in Florida, to run elections for the county. Curtis was chosen over Shasta County Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut, who said after the meeting in an interview with the Record Searchlight, she will run for the office in June 2026. Francescut has worked in the Shasta County elections department since 2008. The top spot in the elected Registrar of Voters' office opened after Tom Toller, who was also appointed to the office, resigned in late March due to health issues. County supervisors fill the position on an interim basis until the next election cycle if the incumbent leaves office. In voting for Curtis, Supervisors Kevin Crye, Chris Kelstrom, and Corkey Harmon argued it was time to change election procedures, according to the Record Searchlight. 'I can't think of anybody better ... to right what I think is wrong with elections,' Crye said of Curtis. Here's what to know about Shasta County's controversial history with California voting and Curtis. Clint Curtis answers questions during his interview at the Wednesday, April 30, Shasta County Board of Supervisors special meeting. Curtis was selected as the next registrar of voters. Who is Clint Curtis, the man picked to run Shasta County elections? Clint Curtis, an outspoken critic of voting machines and an advocate for hand-counting ballots, has unsuccessfully run for Congress as a Democrat four times in California and Florida, according to FEC filings that looked up. He previously practiced law in New York, Florida and the Dominican Republic, his Shasta County application said, and he is now retired, according to his website. Before his work as a lawyer, Curtis worked with a Florida a software design firm that has contracted with NASA, ExxonMobil and the Florida Department of Transportation. In 2004, online technology news site Wired reported that Curtis was interviewed by House and Senate members and the FBI, after alleging the software firm he worked for was asked to hack voting machines to swing the 2000 election for President George W. Bush. His employer, Yang Enterprises, called Curtis' allegations "absurd and categorically untrue." Congressional investigations and the FBI never substantiated Curtis' allegations. In 2022, Curtis was interviewed by debunked 2020 election denier My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, who once promised to financially support Shasta County's failed effort to hand-count election ballots, about voting machine reliability and alleged fraud. However, election officials at the federal, state, and local levels have safeguards in place at three stages – before, during, and after Election Day — to prevent hacking from taking place. Among those safeguards, according to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: States routinely test and certify their voting machines and conduct checks to make sure ballots are properly counted before election results are finalized. And the overwhelming majority of people who vote do so on paper. That creates a document trail that may be checked for accuracy. 'We audit those paper votes after the election to make sure that they match what the machine is telling us the vote total is,' said Lawrence Norden, the senior director of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice. To further limit the possibility of cyber interference, many states, including California, do not allow voting machines to connect to the Internet or even be equipped with modems. Concerns about hacking sparked false claims from conservative pundits that voting machines deleted votes for President Trump and changed them to President Joe Biden in 2020. That led to lawsuits from voting technology companies such as Dominion Voting Systems, which sued Fox News for defamation and ultimately settled the case for $787.5 million. According to the news outlet Shasta Scout, Curtis also told the supervisors that he wants to implement video surveillance of the Shasta County elections process to encourage more transparency among the community and reduce the number of ballot drop boxes in Shasta County. Shasta County's recent history of election-related controversies Since 2020, Shasta County has been the epicenter of California's election denial movement. In 2023, despite concerns over legalities, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted to do away with automated vote-counting machines and instead count votes by hand. In response to the supervisors' action, the California Legislature outlawed hand-tallying ballots in elections with more than 1,000 registered voters. In 2024, CalMatters reported that 10 of the county's 21 employees had left their jobs, with some saying they were confronted by "very angry" public election observers. Related: What to know about push in Shasta County to override voter ID, election laws in California 'A lot of people who have left just because it's not worth it,' former elections account clerk Tanner Johnson told CalMatters. 'I make $19.64 an hour. I'm not going to be a martyr for $19.60 an hour.' Recently, a local citizens' group — "Save Shasta Elections" — started collecting signatures for a measure to require single-day, in-person voting with limited access to absentee ballots, voter identification and hand-counted ballots in Shasta County, the Record Searchlight reported. However, in 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill restricting local governments' election authority. In response, the group argues that because Shasta is a charter county, its laws, including elections, supersede state law. Voters approved a ballot measure last November that made Shasta a charter county. It is among 15 counties in California that are governed by charter. The group will need 6,852 valid signatures to get the measure on the ballot, and they have until Sept. 17 to do so. The signature threshold is based on 10 percent of Shasta County ballots cast in the last gubernatorial election in November 2022, Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut said. If enough signatures are certified as sufficient, then it will be up to Shasta County supervisors to call the election. Is hand-counting election ballots more accurate than machines? Election experts resoundingly agree that hand-counting ballots takes longer than counting with machines, is less reliable and leads to logistical problems, according to research attributed by the League of Women Voters and the Voting Rights Lab. 'Now human eyes on a contest, they can be more accurate if something is not working right with the machines or the scanners, but humans get tired, they make mistakes and sometimes there's a conflict over whether or not a mark on a ballot should constitute a vote or not, and that's going to add additional time,' Genya Coulter, of the Open Source Election Technology Institute, told the Record Searchlight in March 2023. USA TODAY contributed to this article. This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Shasta County new election head Clint Curtis doubts election results
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who's replacing Shasta County's top elections official? What to know about special meeting
The Shasta Board of Supervisors called a special meeting on Thursday afternoon to talk about the suddenly open position of county clerk and registrar of voters now that Tom Toller says he's stepping down at the end of April. Toller told supervisors he will retire in five weeks due to medical issues. County officials will start vetting possible successors soon, Shasta County spokesperson David Maung said in Tuesday's announcement about Toller's retirement. Posting of the agenda on the county website on Wednesday, the day before the special meeting, prompted planned demonstrations at Redding City Hall by those who oppose the board's hard right majority's take on election processes and reform. Here's when the meeting takes place, what the agenda says and why a Shasta County activist says she's organizing a demonstration. Note to readers: If you appreciate the work we do here at the Redding Record Searchlight, please consider subscribing yourself or giving the gift of a subscription to someone you know. The special meeting of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, March 27 in the Redding City Council Chambers at 777 Cypress Ave. See links to the agenda and a list of future meetings at According to the agenda, the purpose of the meeting is to 'Consider options related to the vacancy of the County Clerk/Registrar of Voters position and consider providing direction to staff.' It also says, 'Simple Majority Vote,' but it's unclear from the agenda's wording if the board plans to appoint someone at that time. Questions about the board's role in appointing Toller's replacement, when that will happen and who is in the running came up in public comments at last Tuesday's regular supervisors meeting. At that time, the board didn't announce candidates. Supervisor Kevin Crye rebuffed questions from a Record Searchlight reporter who attended the meeting. More: Shasta elections official retiring months into job, raising question of who will fill role Shortly after the county posted the special meeting agenda on Wednesday, Community activist Jenny O'Connell-Nowain said she started organizing a demonstration, slated to start just before 4 p.m. at Redding City Hall. She and her husband, Bejamin Nowain, produce North State Breakdown, which she describes as an informational website and social media account promoting transparency in North State government. The demonstration is 'not a protest as much as a 'we see you'" statement and call for transparency, said O'Connell-Nowain, who fears supervisors hear mostly from people who support far-right election reform agendas, like hand counting and same day voting requirements. She's concerned the board will appoint someone of a similar mind, she said: Like former Supervisor Patrick Jones, or Laura Hobbs, who unsuccessfully sued the elections office after she lost the 2024 District 2 supervisor primary race. O'Connell-Nowain said she hopes the demonstration lets supervisors know there are Shasta County constituents who would oppose those appointments. While she rejects conservative election reform agendas, she has no political party preference, O'Connell-Nowain said. Party members on both sides of the aisle tend to stereotype and "demonize" each other, rather than have 'constructive conversations,' she said. Toller delivered a letter of resignation to supervisors on Monday, according to a press release issued by the county. He'll retire on April 29, less than 10 months into his tenure at the elections office. 'I regret to inform you that I have been struggling with a serious illness for some months now. Based on the advice of my doctors, it has become clear to me that I cannot both focus on my health and continue to serve the citizens of Shasta County with vigor and undivided attention," Toller said in the press release. Supervisors appointed Toller last June to serve out the rest of longtime clerk Cathy Darling Allen's term, which ends in January 2027. Toller took the seat vacated in May 2024 by Darling Allen, who also cited medical reasons for her departure. In doing so, he became a central figure in heated conflict over election reform issues, including hand-counting ballots, identification requirements for voters and same day voting. Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County clerk, registrar of voters: Search to replace Tom Toller
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Shasta County Registrar of Voters retiring less than year after appointment
Shasta County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Tom Toller announced Tuesday he'll retire in five weeks, less than 10 months into his tenure at the elections office. Toller announced he'll step down on April 29 after delivering his letter of resignation to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors on Monday, according to a press release issued by the county. 'I regret to inform you that I have been struggling with a serious illness for some months now. Based on the advice of my doctors, it has become clear to me that I cannot both focus on my health and continue to serve the citizens of Shasta County with vigor and undivided attention. I, therefore, resign my office as County Clerk and Registrar of Voters…My goal in providing five weeks of notice is to assist in an orderly transition well in advance of the Gubernatorial Primary of June 2026,' Toller said in the announcement. When he leaves, Toller will be the second person to retire from the position over the past year. Toller was appointed to the position in June after then longtime clerk, Cathy Darling Allen, vacated the position in May. Darling Allen also cited medical reasons. At the time of his appointment last June, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors anticipated Toller would serve out the rest of Darling Allen's term, which ends in January 2027. '…Toller has served Shasta County with dedication and integrity, overseeing local elections and vital record services with professionalism and a deep commitment to public service, said the county's spokesperson David Maung the announcement. County officials will start vetting possible successors soon, Maung reported. Note to readers: If you appreciate the work we do here at the Redding Record Searchlight, please consider subscribing yourself or giving the gift of a subscription to someone you know. Toller faced controversy even before he took office in July 2024. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to appoint Toller to the elections clerk position on June 19, 2024. The semi-retired former prosecutor had no experience in managing an elections office when he applied, according to the county. At the time, Shasta Supervisors Kevin Crye, Patrick Jones and Chris Kelstrom voted to hire Toller over three other finalists for the job. Then Supervisors Tim Garman and Mary Rickert voted against hiring Toller, preferring instead Joanna Francescut --- a candidate with 16 years of elections work experience and who managed the elections office after Darling Allen became ill. "…my greatest hope is that I can bring some transparency to the office and increase people's confidence in how we process votes here in Shasta County,' Toller said at the time of his appointment. Toller inherited a tempest when he took office. While Darling Allen was popular with many voters — having won 68.4 % of the vote in the 2022 election, she and her staff faced criticism from supervisors, advocates of hand counting ballots and election deniers who supported President Trump's claims of election fraud in 2020. Elections office workers reported angry calls and shouting observers, some accusing them of tampering with ballots and other crimes, none of which were substantiated, according to Darling Allen. Seemingly tasked with cleaning up the elections office by the board's hard right conservative majority, Toller faced pressure from local election skeptics and activists before and after the presidential election. At the same time, he was at the center of heated board and community discussions about replacing voting machines with hand counting ballots in spite of state election law. In late October, a few weeks after November presidential election ballots went out in the mail to registered voters, Toller announced the elections office was having tallying troubles due to a printing error on some ballots. An 'ink overspray' that wasn't 'visible to the naked eye and did not come up in our pre-election testing' caused the problem, he said on Oct. 30. By then, the elections office had already received approximately 32,500 ballots. In early November, Toller announced he was addressing complaints from election staff about Supervisor Kevin Crye's behavior toward them, although he didn't specify what those complaints included. 'I recognize (supervisors) stand in a special relationship, but as an independent holder of an elected office, they have to respect my responsibilities as well. And if they wanted to descend to the level of punishing my doing my job by, say, pruning my budget, that would be a really disappointing thing and I think that would be something that the voters of Shasta County would take very seriously,' Toller said at the time. Toller and his staff faced criticism from members of the county elections commission as well, including from ballot hand-counting advocate Patty Plumb. Supervisors voted 3-2 to in January to re-appoint Plumb to the commission. Before the vote, Plumb said Toller needed to step down because he refused 'to reform our elections.' Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta registrar of voters Tom Toller retiring 10 months into job
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will Fountain Wind farm plan prevail in Shasta? California decision coming soon
While Shasta County continues to fight California to stop a revived controversial wind energy project that supervisors rejected more than three years ago, the draft environmental impact report for the proposed Fountain Wind is expected to be published this spring. After the draft EIR is released, a public workshop on the project will be scheduled in Shasta County. Such meetings happen within 60 days of the report's publication, California Energy Commission officials said. The state cannot at this time give an estimate when a final decision on the project will come. Shasta County and the Pit River Tribe teamed up to sue the state over the project, which would feature 48 wind turbines on 4,500 acres in the Montgomery Creek-Round Mountain area, about 35 miles east of Redding. The turbines would have the capacity to generate 205 megawatts, enough power to about 80,000 homes, according to project applicant Texas-based ConnectGen. County officials announced the lawsuit in late November 2023 at a public meeting in Anderson that was hosted by the California Energy Commission. In October 2021, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted down the project, denying ConnectGen's appeal of the county Planning Commission's decision not to approve the wind farm. The supervisors' meeting featured more than 10 hours of public comment. But the California Legislature in 2022 approved AB 205, which allowed the Energy Commission to consider approving the project, even though Shasta County rejected it. To date, Shasta has spent more than $1 million to fight the project. The largest amount, about $968,000, has gone to legal fees. Shasta also has spent about $55,000 of the $100,000 it budgeted for its marketing campaign about the project's negative impacts on the community, county spokesman David Maung said. 'I have kept spending under the allotted $100K in anticipation of the decision being delayed, to give us flexibility for another marketing push in the near future,' Maung wrote in an email to the Record Searchlight. During the November 2023 public meeting in Anderson, the California Energy Commission was told the water source for the project was no longer viable. The commission verified this information in December 2023. ConnectGen then submitted information on a new water source on March 18, 2024. Ten days later, the commission informed ConnectGen that the change triggered more environmental review, state officials said. That meant a decision on the project would be delayed from the original estimate of mid- to late 2024. Meanwhile, last April a Shasta County Superior Court judge ruled that a judge from outside of the area will preside over the lawsuit filed against the wind project. Rather than move the case to a court in another county, Judge Stephen Baker ruled that a judge from a county other than Shasta or Sacramento counties will hear the case, but it will remain in-county. The California Attorney General's Office had objected to having a lawsuit filed against the California Energy Commission heard in Shasta County because of possible prejudice against the commission. Shasta County has received support from other counties. The San Bernardino County Land Services Department in a September 2023 letter to California Energy Commission Executive Director Drew Bohan wrote that the CEC lacks the jurisdiction to consider an application for an energy project that the state, local, regional or federal agency, collectively acting as the local agency, has denied. Any other interpretation 'would create absurd results, invite manipulation, and directly conflict with the intent and processes of AB 205,' the San Bernardino County letter in part states. Supporters of what ConnectGen is doing include California Unions for Reliable Energy, which argued in a letter sent in August 2023 to the CEC that Shasta County's interpretation of AB 205 "is contrary to the statue's plain language, inconsistent with the bill's legislative history and statutory scheme, and unsupported by case law." David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He's part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta's spent $1M fighting wind farm, but California decides on plan
