County attorney says ballot retention violated state law

The Shasta County attorney says an elections official violated state law by not destroying ballots from the November 2024 election.

What the county attorney said

The county attorney’s position is that the official’s failure to destroy the November 2024 ballots is unlawful. The claim concerns the continued handling of ballots after that election.

The official’s name, the specific law at issue and the date of the county attorney’s statement were not identified in the announcement of the development.

What is at issue

The dispute is about whether ballots from November 2024 should have been destroyed and whether keeping them violated state law. The county attorney says the answer is yes.

The matter does not involve a candidate or a specific race in the information available for this story. It concerns the conduct of a Shasta County elections official and the county’s handling of election materials.

What happens next

The county attorney’s statement establishes a legal allegation, not a court ruling. A court or another authorized body would have to determine whether the official violated the law if the matter proceeds to a formal legal decision.

The next public action could clarify the official’s identity, the statute cited by the county attorney and what steps, if any, the county plans to take concerning the November 2024 ballots.