Shasta County’s new election official under scrutiny for election denial ties
Shasta County’s new elections chief is less than a week into the job and already facing scrutiny for his past job experience, beliefs about election interference and evolving political affiliation.
Clint Curtis was selected as the county’s interim clerk and registrar of voters on April 30 and formally appointed by the Board of Supervisors May 13 when a background check cleared.
He’ll oversee the rural North State county’s elections office, which in recent years has weathered turbulent claims of election interference and efforts to hand-count elections.
The retired attorney ran a law firm with offices in New York, Florida and the Dominican Republic. He has no experience overseeing elections, but according to his cover letter has worked on cases challenging election results, including a “2016 challenge to President Trump’s election results in Florida.”
“As such, I have in depth knowledge of every aspect of Election Administrators (sic) duties including absentee mail voting, early voting, election day voting, voter registration rolls(,) accuracy and campaign finance,” he wrote in his application for the Shasta County job.
The self-described “election integrity advocate” said his work spans the political spectrum: he has spoken at events hosted by MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell, and he claimed to have worked on a recount team for Kamala Harris during her first election for California attorney general in 2010 — however, there was no recount for that election.
Curtis, who has a background in computer programming, claimed in a documentary that a Florida congressman asked him to create vote-rigging software.
According to local media reports, Curtis’ appointment faced pushback from two supervisors and several residents.
The new elections head is registered as a Democrat in Florida and recently registered as a Republican in California. As he explained to Redding’s Action News Now, Curtis ran for Congress in Florida as a Democrat, but said today he “could be a Trump Republican.”
Shasta supervisors appointed Curtis to fill the post until early 2027. The previous registrar, Tom Toller resigned after less than a year due to health concerns. Toller had replaced the previous elections head, Cathy Darling Allen, who also cited her health when she resigned after two decades.
The supervisors selected Curtis from a pool of five finalists that included Shasta County’s current deputy registrar of voters and top elections workers from around the country.
