About a nine hour drive from Los Angeles, there is a deeply conservative county, which last year attempted to split California into two separate states. Shasta County, which only has a population of approximately 180,000 residents, is much different from L.A., not only geographically, with its rural, mountainous region and lakes, but also, more notably, in its far-right politics.

Last November, Shasta County supervisors voted 3-2 to back a state assembly resolution seeking to divide California's coastal and inland counties and become its own state. 

Unlike L.A. County, Shasta County is largely characterized by a predominantly (78%) white, older and politically conservative demographic. It is located about 40 miles south of the Oregon-California border.  

Today, the county is considered one of the nation’s most conservative and deep-red counties. 

Establishing its own election system 

Following the June elections, the county passed Measure B, one of the most controversial voting measures proposed in recent years, looking to establish the county’s own election system. 

Measure B in Shasta County, which passed with 56% approval in this year’s June primary, proposed several alterations to the elections process, including that elections take place in one day, having the majority of county residents vote in person, eliminating mail-in ballots except in special cases, having ballots be counted by hand and also requesting all voters to produce a government-issued ID to cast their ballot. 

State leaders have already challenged the measure, arguing that it violates the state’s constitution and election laws. 

On Tuesday, June 30, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the county, with the goal of blocking and ultimately striking down the measure. 

“In short, with the November general election just a few months away, Measure B threatens the rights of more than one hundred thousand registered voters, the accuracy and timeliness of election results and California’s compliance with federal law,” the lawsuit states. “Petitioners therefore urgently seek a writ of mandate to invalidate Measure B and enjoin its implementation.”

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the measure was flawed from the start. 

“Measure B is an unlawful attempt to disenfranchise voters and create a rogue election system that serves only a select few,” Weber said. “We will not stand by while barriers are put in place to silence eligible voters and we are committed to removing every obstacle that stands between Californians and their fundamental right to participate in our democracy.” 

COVID-19 and conservative politics

Annelise Pierce, founder and managing editor of Shasta Scout, a nonprofit news media organization, said that although Shasta County has been a radically different place from the majority of California, a real shift “farther to the right” in the county increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At that time, Pierce said Shasta County was under long-standing conservative leadership. The lockdowns, mask mandates, school and new vaccine requirements sparked discontent among many residents who argued California’s health regulations obstructed their rights and daily freedoms. 

"This has long-term been a place where secessionist movements have thrived and where there's been a lot of antagonism towards the California government. As in many places, the pandemic was the beginning of a real shift further to the right for our community,” she said. 

Apart from the pandemic, Pierce also said the 2020 elections were a big pivotal point in the conservative landscape of the county. 

2020 elections

As investigated by ProPublica and PBS's Frontline, the belief that the 2020 presidential election was rigged became an important force in Republican politics. This unfounded belief was fueled by several theories spread by news organizations, political operatives and other Trump supporters via internal e-mails and other documentation. 

"That's kind of where there were these big shifts in the election process. We had a very small vocal group of election activists who, from 2016 to 2020, were issuing complaints about our local [election] process, very similar to what we were seeing on the national scale,” Pierce stated. 

Around 65% of the county’s registered voters chose President Donald Trump in the past three presidential elections.

Today, in a time when Latinos account for only 10% of the entire county population, state leaders fear that voting laws like Measure B could lead to abstention from people of color, which could ultimately impact state and international issues like immigration, health, education and homelessness, among others. 

“We actually had a lot of folks who have contacted us and said, ‘I've never felt unsafe voting before, but I do for the first time this election.’ That's something we really shouldn't discount," Pierce said. 

2026 general elections

Deadlines for the November midterm election are quickly approaching, making initiatives like Measure B alarming. County election officials must report active voter registrations to the Secretary of State by September 14 and election officials must begin mailing voter information guides by September 24 and start sending vote-by-mail ballots by October 5.

Originally filed in the California Third District Court of Appeal because of the need for a prompt resolution before the upcoming November midterm election, the lawsuit against Measure B is now being brought in Shasta County Superior Court after the appellate court determined the case should first be considered in the trial court.