What the heck is going on in Shasta County California?!

A closer look at the Shasta county elections

Elections, Foreign Policy, and the Battle for Integrity

When it comes to my biggest issue with the Democratic Party, elections are right at the top of the list. But I don’t want to stray too far from another fact: their foreign policy has fallen off a cliff, becoming even worse than the Republican Party, which for years was known as the home of the neocons. That said, since I’ve spent years digging into elections, I’ll stick to that topic—because it’s the best area where I can educate people on how the system really works, and how both parties have learned to manipulate it.

It was obvious years ago that the Republicans cheated the system in both Florida and Ohio to hand Bush Jr. his elections. And how did the Democrats respond to a party rigging the vote count? Did they push for laws to make elections more transparent and fair? No—they took a page from the Republicans’ playbook and joined the game of “who can cheat better.”

During Bernie Sanders’ primaries in 2016 and 2020, the establishment tilted the scale for their chosen candidate. In fact, during the Bernie Sanders lawsuit, Democratic lawyer Bruce Spiva openly admitted that the DNC could go into a smoke-filled back room and pick whoever they wanted —point-blank showing they don’t believe in a democratic process. In These TimesTruthdig

After 2020, I kept hearing the same line from many left-leaning folks: “The Democrats only cheated Bernie, they don’t cheat in the general.” This false belief stopped them from calling fair balls and strikes when it came to that year’s presidential race. I believe Donald Trump didn’t get a fair shake in 2020, and now the election integrity movement has shifted—from being mostly progressive voices years ago to a populist right movement fueled by people who feel they, too, got a raw deal.

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Shasta County, Clint Curtis, and a Rare Move Toward Transparency

So where do we go from here, in a system where both parties refuse to admit their faults? Well, credit where credit’s due: some Trump supporters in Shasta County, California, made a bold choice in hiring Clint Curtis.

If you’ve been in the election integrity fight as long as I have and haven’t heard of Clint Curtis, you need to do your homework. He’s a straight shooter—a Boy Scout at heart, a true American who believes in fair elections and knows how to make them happen. He first gained attention years ago when he testified in Florida that he’d been approached to create a vote-flipping program for tabulation machines. Since then, he’s been targeted by what I call the “Election Integrity Industrial Complex”—the powerful network of government and corporate interests that don’t want the truth about our voting systems to come out. WIRED+1WIRED+1

Now, Clint is in charge of Shasta County’s elections, including a major governor’s race in a couple of years. California law still mandates that every registered voter gets a mail-in ballot and bans counties from using traditional precinct-based voting, which makes transparency a tough hill to climb. But Clint is pushing forward with innovative ideas—like photographing ballots before they’re sent to tabulation. Shasta County also limits in-person voting to election day itself (though mail-in voting is allowed), which keeps the process tighter.

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Cutting Drop Boxes and Running a Practice Election

Another move that deserves praise: Clint cut the number of ballot drop boxes down to just three. Establishment Democrats claim that widespread drop boxes and mass ballot harvesting are signs of a fair election—“inclusivity” they scream, but in reality, drop boxes open the door to mistrust and abuse.

Clint is also planning something almost unheard of: a “dry run” election, so voters can see exactly how the system works before the real thing. This is the kind of proactive transparency that builds trust—especially in a state like California, where proprietary voting software from private equity-owned companies hides behind a wall of secrecy.

Of course, critics have come after him. Some call him a Trump sympathizer because Trump supporters helped bring him in. But Clint is actually an ex-Democrat who will work with anyone who wants to fix elections. He was also accused of firing an assistant for partisan reasons, but the truth is simpler: most election administrators don’t actually understand elections on a technical level, and Clint felt she wasn’t up to the job.

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The Bigger Picture

What does this mean for the future of elections? If Shasta County’s model works, it could inspire others to demand the same kind of transparency in their own communities. People will see that clean, fair, verifiable elections aren’t just possible—they’re worth fighting for.

That’s why I say Clint Curtis’s hiring isn’t a partisan win—it’s a win for everyone who cares about the truth at the ballot box. Clint Curtis for County Clerk 2026