Shasta County voters approved Measure B, eliminating most mail voting and requiring photo ID, in conflict with state law

On June 2, 2026, voters in Shasta County, California approved Measure B, a county charter amendment that eliminates most vote-by-mail, requires photo identification to vote, and replaces machine tabulation with the full hand-counting of ballots. Unofficial returns showed the measure passing with roughly 56 percent of the vote, pending the official canvass and certification that would make it part of the county charter.

The measure was placed before voters and championed by the Shasta Election Reform campaign, in a county whose government has been a national focal point for election-administration disputes. Vote-by-mail is how most Californians cast their ballots, and it matters most to elderly, disabled, rural, and working voters who cannot easily reach a polling place; a photo-ID requirement adds a further hurdle that falls on those same groups, and hand-counting slows results and raises the risk of error. The restrictions land on identifiable populations who did not consent to losing access, whether or not they were among the 56 percent.

Civil-rights groups, including the ACLU of Northern California, say the county cannot lawfully do this: California reserves the authority to set voter-identification rules to the state under SB 1174, and ending most mail voting conflicts with state election law. They have signaled litigation, framing Measure B as a local government reaching beyond its authority to restrict the franchise rather than a permissible local choice.

The Standing records the abuse as the adoption of these franchise restrictions — by the county and the campaign that drove them — not as a choice the electorate made against itself. A majority curtailing an identifiable minority's access to the ballot, in a domain state law reserves to the state, is the core of voter suppression even when the vehicle is a popular vote. Because a ballot measure becomes law at certification, not on election night, this entry is held pending the official canvass; it will be finalized and dated to the county's certification of the result.