{"id":358763,"date":"2026-06-13T02:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358763\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T02:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:34:09","slug":"california-sues-to-block-shasta-countys-measure-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358763\/","title":{"rendered":"California sues to block Shasta County\u2019s Measure B"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secertary of State Shirley Weber filed a lawsuit on Friday aimed at blocking a Shasta County ballot initiative that would set up a range of new voting rules.<\/p>\n

If Measure B takes effect, it would ban mail-in ballots in Shasta County, mandate that election officials hand-count ballots and require voters to show photo identification to register to vote or cast a ballot.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Bonta called Measure B \u201clegally indefensible\u201d because it attempts to supersede state election law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that the law is on our side and that Measure B will be struck down expeditiously,\u201d he said. \u201cNo city or county gets to unliterally rewrite our election rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shasta County Clerk Clint Curtis is one of the main backers of the initiative. The Republican has repeatedly made unfounded claims about election fraud and reportedly threatened to \u201cthroat-punch\u201d staff, according to the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around 55% of county residents voted in favor of Measure B last week. Bonta and Weber\u2019s lawsuit seeks to<\/a> prevent it from taking effect.<\/p>\n

Curtis, who lost his bid for reelection in the June 2 primary, has maintained the measure is legal under the county\u2019s charter status.<\/p>\n

Shasta County Superior Court judges denied two prior lawsuits that aimed to block Measure B from appearing on the ballot, including one from Shasta County\u2019s attorney Joseph Larmour, without ruling on the substance of their cases.<\/p>\n

One of Measure B\u2019s proponents Laura Hobbs, has acknowledged that there are \u201csections that are illegal\u201d but told Jefferson Public Radio<\/a> that others could be tweaked to fit federal and state law.<\/p>\n

Bonta and Weber requested relief by Aug. 24, saying voters and election officials need certainty about whether they\u2019re using the rules established by Measure B or the ones used across the state.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the lawsuit Friday, Curtis told the Shasta Scout<\/a>, a local news site, that he\u2019d expected the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe courts are doing what they do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 5:16 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Paviour<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Ben Paviour is the California political power reporter for The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Capitol Bureau. He previously covered Virginia state politics for public radio and was a local investigations fellow at The New York Times. He got his start in journalism at the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. Before becoming a reporter, he worked in local government and tech in the Bay Area.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secertary of State Shirley Weber filed a lawsuit on Friday aimed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-358763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}