The Shasta County Board of Supervisors has dropped an inquiry into whether County Clerk Clint Curtis engaged in electioneering during an event last month.
Curtis hosted a tour of the county elections office that included six candidates for governor and election conspiracy theorist Doug Frank.
Curtis, who was appointed county clerk in May, has described himself as an election integrity advocate. He did not have prior experience running elections but had grand visions of reforming elections in Shasta County to make them, in his view, more transparent.
During the tour, Curtis claimed that the previous administration could have been stuffing ballots, which could be construed as campaigning because Curtis’ opponent in the county clerk race, Joanna Francescut, was the assistant county clerk at the time.
“The predominant purpose of the event was a tour with dignitaries," said County Counsel Joseph Larmour during a supervisors meeting on Tuesday. "The comment came from a response to the press, which was not related to the tour, and likely falls under the incidental code section.”
Both state law and county policy allow limited exemptions to electioneering for one-time or incidental comments, which was the case here.
Supervisors concluded the matter did not rise to the level of electioneering and voted to close the investigation.
