California sues county that just eliminated mail and early voting

By Jen Rice

Vote-by-mail envelopes are sorted at the Shasta County Registrar of Voters office in Redding, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. The leaders of a conservative California county known for its failed attempt to hand-count ballots in response to unfounded claims of fraud have hired a new registrar of voters with no experience running elections. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

California’s Democratic leadership has filed suit against a Republican-leaning county that recently approved an eyebrow-raising slate of extreme anti-voting policies. 

The state is urging the California Third District Court of Appeal to move quickly to resolve the case to prevent harm to voters in the November general election.

On June 2, during California’s primary election, voters in Shasta County approved a ballot initiative that would eliminate mail and early voting, mandate that all ballots be counted by hand, require voters to present ID to register and to vote, and create a separate voter registration system disconnected from the state.

It would also limit elections to a single in-person Election Day, carving out limited exceptions for voters with disabilities, members of the military, and U.S. citizens living abroad. 

The initiative — known as Measure B — passed with 55% of county voters in favor. In deep blue California, Shasta County is an outlier where two-thirds of voters supported President Donald Trump in 2024. 

Measure B would be catastrophic anywhere, but it’s even more astonishing in California, where the new rules “illegally overhaul” the county’s election system and “undermine state election law protections,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in their legal complaint filed Friday.

“There can be no serious dispute that Measure B — a voter initiative to establish a county-specific elections system in Shasta County — is unlawful,” the complaint states, calling all of the provisions “directly contrary to state law.” 

“[U]ntil this Court or the Supreme Court rules on the legality of Measure B, it is unknown which voters in Shasta County will be considered to have active registrations, how they can register or re-register to vote, if necessary, and how they will be permitted to cast their ballot,” the state added.

The Shasta ballot initiative is just the latest attempt from a right-leaning county to break from California’s voting policies. 

In 2024, Huntington Beach voters approved a ballot initiative requiring residents to show ID to vote in municipal elections. The state swiftly moved to block the measure, which was struck down by a state appeals court. The state Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Nor is this the first time Shasta County has pushed for anti-voting policies.

It pushed for a hand count of ballots in the 2024 election. And in 2023, the county attempted to get rid of Dominion voting machines, which have been a central focus of right-wing conspiracy theories.