Shasta County Supervisors began deliberating the budget for the upcoming fiscal year this week. On Tuesday, they heard from Clint Curtis, the newly appointed clerk whose controversial appointment signaled a win for far-right activists in the county.
Curtis, a vocal critic of voting machines, had long pushed to eliminate their use, arguing that hand-counting ballots would restore public trust. But his hands are tied by state laws that require the use of election machines.
Instead, Curtis said he wants to bring printing and other election services in-house.
“We're going to eliminate all those extra costs from handing everything out, and then we're going to have control of it," he said. "We can have it on camera, and it should save the county about $250,000 a year.”
Curtis also wants to remove many of the ballot drop boxes around the county and search for a centralized location for the department, which is currently split up into two separate office spaces.
“We need a new building that we can actually set up so the public has complete visibility of the entire process," Curtis said. "We hope to acquire that really quickly and get that in place, and hope to do so also with basically the same amount we're already spending for the buildings that we presently have.”
The county has previously considered a new building, but officials have struggled to find a space that’s inexpensive and meets the department’s needs. Curtis said he wants to install a large number of cameras to livestream the entire election process from start to finish.
These proposals would require additional approval from the board, since they weren’t included in the original budget request.
