Shasta County voters are getting another chance this Tuesday to decide two countywide measures that failed last year. Measure E and Measure F are back on the ballot after voters rejected earlier versions in 2024.
For Kevin Crye, who helped put them back before voters, the comeback is the point. He said the public did not understand the proposition, and the board that backed the measures pushed them forward again by a majority vote.
Measure E would change the county charter so Shasta County could not use eminent domain to transfer property from one private owner to another. It would also bar the county from using that power to take property for private entities even if the land were later put to a public use. That is a narrower fight than it may look, because California law already allows the government to take private land for public use, and a Supreme Court ruling in 2005 widened the reach of eminent domain in a way Measure E now tries to block locally. The catch is that the same use of eminent domain is already forbidden at the state level by Proposition 99.
The other measure would change how some vacancies are filled in county government. Measure F would cover elected officials including the assessor, registrar of voters, sheriff, auditor, district attorney and treasurer if they left office early. Under current state law, the Board of Supervisors appoints a replacement and can decide whether that person serves only until the next election or through the rest of the term. Measure F would instead require a special election if a vacancy opens mid-term and there is a regularly scheduled election within a year. If there is not, the board could appoint a candidate, but only by a four-fifths vote. It would not change how county supervisors themselves are replaced.
The measures were not rewritten from scratch. Versions of Measures E and F were on the ballot in 2024 as Measures P and Q, and voters rejected both. Measure E went down by just over 50% of the vote, which is close enough to show the county has already heard from voters once and is asking again anyway.
That is why this Tuesday matters. Ballot measures let voters decide directly on changes to county law, and these two would update Shasta’s charter law in ways that could shape both property fights and the way county offices are filled after a resignation or death. The question now is not whether the county has tried this before. It is whether voters want those rules written into the charter after turning them down only a year ago.
