Key facts
- Shasta County, California, plans to hire Tina Peters, a Colorado election denier, as an elections consultant.
- Peters was convicted of felonies for allowing unauthorized access to voting equipment and sensitive data was subsequently published.
- Peters was released from prison in June after her sentence was commuted by Colorado Governor Jared Polis.
- Shasta County's current election official, Clint Curtis, has faced accusations of creating a hostile work environment and making threats.
- Curtis was censured by the Shasta County Board of Supervisors for personnel rule violations.
- Curtis was ousted by voters in June, with Joanna Francescut winning the election for his position.
In Shasta County, California, a region known for election denial activism, officials plan to hire Tina Peters, a prominent Colorado election denier, as an elections consultant. Clint Curtis, the county's top election official, stated Peters would not have access to the county's voting system. Peters, formerly the top election official in Mesa County, Colorado, was convicted of felonies in 2024 for allowing an activist to impersonate a county employee during an upgrade of the county's voting software, leading to the subsequent publication of sensitive data by The Gateway Pundit.
Shasta County has been a focal point for election denial movements, with its governing body previously attempting to replace Dominion Voting Systems with a hand-count system, a move experts warned would be costly and less accurate. The state ultimately blocked these plans. The county's current election official, Curtis, who opposes voting machines, has himself been embroiled in controversy, facing accusations of creating a hostile work environment and making violent threats, leading to his censure by the board of supervisors. Curtis denies these claims and plans to sue the county.
Peters was released from prison in June after Colorado Governor Jared Polis commuted her nine-year sentence, a decision that drew criticism from the state's Secretary of State and the Colorado Democratic party. Since her release, Peters has continued to promote false claims about election fraud. Curtis's plan to hire Peters comes as his own tenure in office is ending, having been ousted by voters in June in favor of Joanna Francescut. Shasta voters also approved a measure to mandate in-person, single-day voting and photo ID, effectively ending vote-by-mail, a measure that has been temporarily blocked by a judge following a state lawsuit.