In Shasta County, a tense special election draws scrutiny from California officials
There was a time when the two special elections in Shasta County Tuesday would have made scarcely a ripple. The school board race and the contest for three seats on the fire protection district affected fewer than 9,500 voters.
But in 2023, there is no such thing as a minor election in this MAGA-charged corner of the rural north state, where many residents believe President Donald Trump was cheated out of second term in 2020. In a country with more than a little queasiness over the prospect of political violence in 2024, many eyes were on Shasta as a kind of bellwether.
Three observers from the California Secretary of State’s office were on hand, along with the president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Recorders, and a hefty police presence.
Tensions ran high in downtown Redding because this was the first election since the conspiracist majority on the county’s Board of Supervisors voted earlier this year to scrap its Dominion voting machines, citing baseless charges that the company had a hand in robbing Trump. The board said all ballots going forward would be counted by hand.
But state lawmakers stepped in, passing a bill that bars counties from getting rid of their voting machines without having a contract in place for another certified system. Cathy Darling Allen, the county’s beleaguered Registrar of Voters, for months now a target of threats and slander, acquired machines from Hart InterCivic, which infuriated the election-denialist supervisors.
There were fears of a showdown, but the evening passed without serious incident. When the polls closed Tuesday night, a group of election skeptics stood at the ready, waiting to watch staff tabulate ballots and verify signatures. Two Shasta County Sheriff’s officers stood among them.
“You are interfering with me conducting the election ... I don’t want you to harass anybody,” Allen sternly told Lori Bridgeford, a Shasta County resident and volunteer observer, who walked into the elections office with a series of questions.
Bridgeford had just come from the Board of Supervisors meeting, wherein she suggested a group of Shasta residents who have taken up knitting during the meeting may be practicing a kind of witchcraft. Witch-stitchery, she called it. The board chambers, she said, “have been nothing but very dark for the past, I don’t know, several months.”
“I have every right to ask what’s happening,” Bridgeford said to Allen. “You don’t need to be snarky.”
Most observers, though, were there to support Allen and her staff.
Susanne Baremore, who recently decided to run for a seat on the Board of Supervisors herself, was at the election office all afternoon and evening.
“I am really concerned about the people who are carrying these banners of misinformation,” she told The Bee. “It’s alarming what’s going on in terms of the degree of misinformation surrounding our elections, and I just want to be here in support. Our elections are free, fair, and accurate.”
Members of the local League of Women Voters also attended, both at the elections office and throughout the six polling centers.
“There’s so much anger now,” said Susan Wilson, the Redding LWV chapter president. “The Board of Supervisors has made things difficult ... And that’s why the League exists, because we need to educate, we need to understand each other.”
Election night pressure
Allen, registrar for nearly 20 years, has taken much of the heat from the community — not to mention the board members — over baseless charges of fraud. Last week, in front of the board, she defended herself and her office amid a torrent of accusations that the county’s elections have been mishandled. And many residents, convinced she’s committing election fraud herself, bombard her, and her staff, with questions.
“I don’t think they’re questions,” Allen said. “I’ve learned to discern who has honest questions and who’s asking in good faith, and who is operating in bad faith and just wants to explain what they think they know. And (I’ve learned to) be kind to everyone but not waste time with people who don’t have any interest in my responses.”
People have made “vague, oblique threats,” Allen said, “but when they say, ‘We need to get rid of her’ and then talk about how they’re armed and not afraid to use the Second Amendment, what am I supposed to think?”
Allen was brought to tears more than once on Tuesday.
“I’m deeply worried for my country,” she said. And she’s worried about her safety and the safety of her staff.
Support from the state — and Placer County
The Secretary of State’s office sent three election observers to support election officials at Shasta County polling centers.
“They’ve really come through and been as helpful as they can be,” Allen said about the Secretary of State. “They’ve been amazing.”
One surprise visitor was an especially comforting presence for Allen: Placer County Registrar of Voters Ryan Ronco.
“He made me cry this morning,” Allen said. “I didn’t know he was coming.”
Ronco serves as the president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Recorders.
“Having no election in my county, I wanted to be here so that if there was something that the registrar’s office thought I would help with — whether that was being a runner between a polling place and main office, or just getting coffee for people — I just wanted to be here so that I could help them.”
Ronco said the tension between the board and Allen “is sad.”
“I come from a county where I’m lucky to have a great relationship with my board,” he said.
“That is not the same as what’s happening here. When you’re in a situation where there’s trust issues, it doesn’t really serve anybody.”
He also defended Allen.
“I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, but I know that I’ve seen Cathy operate, and I know that she tries to have an office where she puts transparency and accuracy out there at the forefront. I hope that will be recognized.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story was updated Jan. 16, 2024, to give more context to and correct Lori Bridgeford’s public comment at the Shasta County Board meeting on Nov. 9, 2023.
