Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis demonstrates use of election tools throughout an open home on the Election Workplace. Photograph by Annelise Pierce.
Shasta Election Commissioner Patty Plumb greeted the trickle of holiday makers arriving on the Election Workplace for a tour on Saturday, September 20. Pointing to components of an commentary space within the newly reorganized downstairs of the Market Avenue constructing, Plumb described it to a Shasta Scout reporter as a “Tiny Peters dream,” referencing an Arizona girl who’s currently incarcerated for felony charges associated to her misconduct as an election official.
“We do a hand rely first and we do a hand rely after,” Plumb mentioned, “after which the machines within the center… so it needs to be satisfying to everyone.”
Info shared by Registrar of Voters (ROV) Clint Curtis later clarified that the ballots will probably be proven to a digicam first then machine scanned after which proven to cameras once more. No hand counting is presently deliberate.
Patty Plumb fills out paperwork in a employees space on the Shasta Election Workplace. Photograph by Annelise Pierce.
Along with being a member of the county’s Election Fee, Plumb can also be the native chair of the New California State motion, which protested in efforts to invalidate Shasta’s last election results. On Saturday, she mentioned she was serving to on the Election Workplace as a volunteer. But her good friend Curtis instructed Shasta Scout that he’d rent her if he might. He additionally confirmed that he’s already employed Laura Hobbs, an activist who’s sued the Election Office twice since she misplaced her candidacy for county board within the March 2024 main.
Requested if hiring Hobbs might current a legal responsibility for the Election Workplace, Curtis demurred, saying her civil rights as an observer might have been violated in previous elections and emphasizing that he’s attempting to “remedy all this unhealthy blood” associated to native elections by hiring her and others who signify polar opposites on the ideological spectrum.
His dream situation, Curtis indicated, consists of pairing Hobbs with Benjamin Nowain, a local activist who has led protests against Curtis’ hiring. Curtis mentioned he’d like the 2 to drive across the county collectively doing poll pickups through the subsequent election. Nowain instructed Shasta Scout he’s conscious Curtis is inquisitive about hiring him however doesn’t but know if he’ll take the job.
Pairing ideological opposites is one theme for Curtis’ strategy to administering elections. Within the downstairs of the Election Workplace he’s opened beforehand personal area to create a poll processing space that’s accessible to observers, who will probably be allowed to make the most of soft chairs arrange in a small lounge space.
Curtis mentioned there may also be a stool behind each group of 4 short-term employees members truly doing the poll processing, in order that observers can present over-the-shoulder supervision of poll dealing with, in the event that they select.
A brand new observer space on the Election Workplace consists of soft chairs. Photograph by Annelise Pierce.
Full-time paid election employees gained’t be concerned in poll processing, Curtis mentioned, partly due to points associated to security which were a sticking level for his or her union, one thing Shasta Scout has not but confirmed with labor organizers.
As a substitute, whereas short-term employees course of ballots downstairs, long-term election employees will stay upstairs to handle different components of the election course of. Curtis mentioned he’s relocating security fencing that used to block off the stairs to the upstairs hallway in an effort to ensure staff feel safe. He mentioned he’s additionally adjusted the power elevator so it may well solely be summoned from the upstairs.
Fencing that supplied safety within the downstairs of the Election Workplace has been taken down and will probably be reinstalled upstairs. Photograph by Annelise Pierce.
Downstairs, short-term employees will work within the aforementioned teams of 4, Curtis defined, with the primary individual standing on the head of the group and handing every bag of poll materials throughout the desk. The second particular person will open the bag and switch over the poll pages permitting a digicam to view how the person bubbles on the poll have been crammed by the voter, from overhead. They’ll then place the poll right into a scanner in the course of the group. The third particular person will pull the scanned poll out of the machine and as soon as once more flip over the pages for a digicam overhead to view earlier than rebagging the poll and handing it off. The aim of the entire train is to permit the general public to match the ballots earlier than and after towards the machine’s scanned vote rely, thus, Curtis believes, confirming digital outcomes.
Any ballots with extraneous marks on them won’t be processed underneath the cameras, Curtis emphasised, in compliance with state legislation and as a way to keep away from figuring out voters. Vote by mail ballots may also be opened away from cameras, to stop names and signatures from being linked to particular person voters.
Clint Curtis demonstrates how teams of 4 short-term staffers surrounding a poll scanner will course of the ballots in view of cameras. Photograph by Annelise Pierce.
On Saturday, the poll processing area was nonetheless solely sparsely outfitted. With about six weeks to go till California’s November election, Curtis nonetheless lacks key tools wanted to implement his proposed answer, together with the mandatory cameras, laptop monitor screens, and poll scanners. He’ll go earlier than the county board once more on Tuesday, September 23, to hunt a funds modification for the third time in a month. He was turned down the last two times.
He additionally nonetheless wants short-term employees. To date, Curtis mentioned, he hasn’t had that many responses to his calls for people to sign up to process ballots however he’s “nonetheless engaged on it.”
A countdown whiteboard on the Election Workplace wall. Photograph by Annelise Pierce.
In the course of the roughly hour and a half Shasta Scout was on website for the open home, only some dozen folks had been seen on the Election Workplace. Nearly all of them had been members of a small group of activists linked to each Plumb and Hobbs. A number of sat behind employees desks through the open home occasion. Curtis and his proper hand man, Assistant Registrar of Voters Brent Turner had been the one official staffers engaged on website.
They supplied excursions of the downstairs. Lots of Curtis’ speaking factors centered on criticizing Shasta’s earlier election officers, telling members of the general public that earlier than his regime the election workplace was in a state of “managed chaos” worse than something he’s seen in “third world nations.”
“Often there’s a giant chain of custody course of, and there was none right here,” Curtis claimed.
Former Registrar of Voters Tom Toller responded to Shasta Scout’s request for remark about this accusation by laying out the complicated chain of custody procedures used on website throughout his administration of the Election Workplace starting in 2024.
“Mr. Curtis,” Toller mentioned, “has been badly knowledgeable.” Toller additionally mentioned Curtis new strategy to election administration is “an answer in search of an issue that doesn’t exist,” including that it “creates added complexity and calls for on employees with out including any extra safety towards poll tampering.”
Near 2 pm, Supervisor Kevin Crye — who voted to nominate Curtis regardless of his lack of expertise — arrived on the open home, taking a fast look across the downstairs poll processing space earlier than asserting, “anyone that’s towards that is towards democracy.”
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