Shasta County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis applied for an open registrar position in Kern County, though it seems he didn’t make the cut.
On July 27, Curtis appeared on Bakersfield based news channel KGET News discussing Kern County and how he believes he could make their elections more secure and transparent. Curtis applied for the open elections chief position in Kern, but received an email from third party recruiting firm WBCP, Inc. stating he was not selected to move forward to interviews, according to KGET News.
The email did say, however, that Curtis is still “an active applicant” who could re-enter the process should the currently selected group of applicants not be chosen.
Curtis lost decisively to former Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut for the elections chief position in the June 2 primary, receiving 42.03% of the vote to Francescut’s 57.97%.
Curtis declined an interview request on Aug. 5.
“Kern County has special opportunities that Shasta does not. It’s bigger, it’s more diverse and it would be a great showplace to make sure that everybody can know that their election is perfect and that they can check it themselves,” said Curtis in the news clip.
By saying Kern voters could “check” the elections themselves, Curtis could have been referring to a plan to introduce the ballot tabulation livestream system that he implemented in Shasta.
The system, implemented in the November 2025 special election and the June 2026 primary election, allowed Shasta voters to watch live as ballots were tabulated, both online and in a viewing room at the Market Street elections office. The system notably did not livestream the counting of mail-in ballots, which, Curtis said in an October 2025 interview, accounts for 90% of ballots cast in Shasta County.
In the interview, Curtis also said he is not a conspiracy theorist, and advocated for ensuring that election observers are able to watch closely as votes are counted.
Deputy County Administrator of Kern County Jason Wiebe told the Record Searchlight on Aug. 4 that, because the county is using an external recruiter, he is not able to confirm or deny that Curtis applied for the position. Wiebe did say, though, that the recruiter has selected the candidates who will be moving forward to the initial stage of interviews on Aug. 10, and Curtis is not one of them.
Wiebe also said that Kern County hopes to fill the position this fall, prior to the November general election.
If Curtis were to get the job, it would mean leaving his position as Shasta’s ROV before the next election, and before his term is up in January 2027.
If Curtis were to leave before his term was up, county policy dictates that Assistant Registrar of Voters Brent Turner would take over the position in the interim, and the Shasta County Board of Supervisors would need to select someone to temporarily fill the position.
In a June 17 interview, Curtis told the Record Searchlight that he didn’t have any plans for after his term was up, but said he might go back to being a lawyer in Florida.
Before being appointed to the position of registrar of voters by the board of supervisors in May 2025, Curtis worked as an attorney based in Titusville, Florida.
Curtis said he “might” consider going after the position of registrar of voters again someday in Shasta County or elsewhere, but would not consider going after any other kind of government position.
Curtis also said he doesn’t know if he will stay in Redding or move elsewhere, but he plans to continue work in the realm of elections.
“I’ll be fighting elections until I drop. Been doing it for forever, so, you know just continue to fight the battle until we get elections that actually belong to the people as opposed to bureaucrats,” said Curtis.
Curtis has maintained that past elections in Shasta were fraudulent, despite findings by the Shasta County Grand Jury in June 2024 that there was no fault in the way Shasta conducted its elections.
Drew Askeland covers Redding and Shasta County government issues, as well as anything else that needs reporting for the Record Searchlight and USA Today Network. Reach him at drew.askeland@redding.com or (530) 225-8247. Please subscribe today to support our newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County clerk Clint Curtis declined for Kern County job
Reporting by Drew Askeland, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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By Drew Askeland, Redding Record Searchlight | USA TODAY Network
