Shasta poll workers train for Tuesday election, relearn paper roster system instead of electronic poll books

Poll worker training took place last week after uncertainty earlier this month over when it would happen, as well as when precincts would be assigned. The multiple training sessions were conducted at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors chambers. 

At a training session Thursday afternoon, around 50 people attended to learn how to check in voters, handle different kinds of ballots — including mail in and provisional — and open and close the polls. The training was led by Election Manager Jenae Wheaton, a long-time staffer at the Shasta elections office.

The election will take place on Nov. 4, when Californians will have the chance to vote on a statewide redistricting initiative known as Prop. 50. Redding residents will also be able to vote on a local sales tax initiative, referred to as Measure A. 

It’s the first election to be run by Shasta’s Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, who was appointed to the county’s top election job about five months ago. He’s never run an election before, and he fired his experienced top staffer soon after taking the job. That has led to concerns from some in the community about how smoothly this election will run. 

Curtis indicated several months ago that he planned to implement new changes at polling places, including having poll workers sort ballots. But poll worker training this week revealed that relatively little has changed about processes at polling places in Shasta County. The one major change voters will see on election day is that poll workers will no longer be using Poll Pads to check them in. 

Poll Pads, sometimes referred to as Electronic Poll Books, are electronic devices used to check in voters, see if they’ve already received or voted using a mail ballot and direct voters to the proper polling place depending on their precinct. At Thursday’s poll worker training, Wheaton responded to a question about why Poll Pads are no longer being used, saying the decision to revert to the paper roster system was made by Curtis.  

While Wheaton didn’t discuss the reasoning behind Curtis’ decision, Poll Pads have been a topic of controversy for some time in Shasta. The Shasta Election Commission, which was put in place as an advisory group in December 2023 recommended last year that Shasta’s election officials eliminate electronic poll books, citing concerns about reliance on electricity and internet connectivity. The county’s last election official, Tom Toller, declined to make that change but Curtis — who has also hired current and former election commissioners — has followed through on that concern, reverting to a system that hasn’t been used in Shasta since November 2023. 

At Thursday’s training, Wheaton’s statement that poll workers would be going back to using paper rosters at Curtis’ direction was met by groans from some in the crowd and cheers by others. She responded to both reactions in the same way, quieting the crowd with brief remarks indicating that the poll training was not going to be used as a place to politicize the election process.

Instead of using Poll Pads, poll workers will now manually check in every voter using paper rosters. Poll workers checking voters in will each have a thick sheaf of papers known as a roster with the names of every registered voter in the roster’s assigned precinct. They will have to confirm each voter’s information is correct and have the voter sign the roster before allowing them to cast their ballot. 

Wheaton told poll workers that using the paper rosters instead of Poll Pads will add complexity to their jobs because they will only be able to see the people listed on the roster for that particular precinct — if someone isn’t on the worker’s roster, they have to instruct the voter to look up their proper precinct online or call the election office to locate their polling place. In contrast, with the Poll Pads, workers could use the digital system to look up the name of the voter regardless of their precinct.

The change to paper rosters could lead to longer waits at the polling places given the significantly longer time it takes poll workers to wade through the hundreds or thousands of voters listed in the paper precinct rosters in order to check in each voter. Additionally, for those who come in without a mail in ballot in hand, poll workers will have to call the election office hotline to ensure the voter has not yet voted before allowing them to cast their ballot in person.

Wheaton described herself and other full-time election staff who will sit by hotline phones at the Market Street election office on Election Day as the new “personal poll pads” of the election office’s paper roster process saying they’ll ask the inspector for the voter’s name, address and date of birth before digitally cancelling out the ballot the voter left at home and assigning a hotline number to reference their action. Inspectors will then place that same number beside the voter’s name in the street roster, have them sign their name and allow them to cast their ballot.

Voting begins on Tuesday at 7 a.m. in Shasta County. The polls close at 8 pm. Under California law you can drop your voted ballot in its envelope at any polling place or ballot drop box on or before Election Day. If you wish to vote in person, you should go to your assigned polling place. You can find your polling place here. You can vote at your polling place in person with or without the ballot you received in the mail. However if you have your mail-in ballot at home, bringing it with you will speed up the process at the polls. For those not yet registered to vote, California law allows voters to register to vote same day.

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