One woman wasn't satisfied with watching the election administration through the buttressed window. She wanted to be in the room while they sifted through ballots. "It isn't transparent," said a woman named Elizabeth who wouldn't give her last name. "To be transparent we have to be able to hear them." This desire for transparency by self-appointed election observers highlights the ongoing scrutiny and distrust surrounding election processes.
So far, while these observers don't appear to have unearthed any evidence of fraud, they are having an impact. The assistant clerk put up a rope to stop the observers from following workers into their breakroom to ask questions. This situation illustrates the tension created by observers and the resulting need for election offices to enforce boundaries.
Workers in Shasta are quitting. Tanner Johnson signed up to be an account clerk because he wanted to help protect democracy. "I felt called to do this job," he said. But, after a little more than a year in the registrar's office, he quit on Wednesday.
Johnson said a lot of them, however, are on edge and "very angry." "They want to catch us in a lie, so they'll try to trick you into saying something," he said. This reflects the pressure election workers face amid a climate of mistrust and scrutiny.
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