Morning from the polls: Shasta County poll workers share their experiences

It’s Election Day, and hundreds of poll workers across Shasta County have been up since before dawn helping facilitate voting for thousands of local residents. 

Reporters traveled throughout Redding and the surrounding areas this morning to observe the voting process and interview poll workers and precinct inspectors about their experiences today and in prior elections. 

Poll workers largely expressed pride in their work for their communities, but some also reported difficulties, including issues setting up accessible voting machines, as well as delayed openings due to poll workers not showing up. 

At a polling place set up at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Redding, precinct inspector Donna Hunter explained that she’s been working in elections for more than a decade, saying she had wanted to volunteer for elections ever since she was young. Now, she wants to keep working at the polls until she physically can’t, she said. 

“I’m very proud to do what I do,” she said, adding that voting and getting to be involved in elections is a privilege in itself.

Hunter explained that elections used to be more celebrated in Shasta up until a few years ago, when people began questioning election processes. For those in the county who are skeptical about how elections are run, Hunter said they should get involved in volunteering at the polls or at the elections office. “If you want to know how it works, go work,” she said. 

At Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church polling place in Redding, Denise Boehle is a second-generation poll worker who’s proud to take part in the tradition. She said her mother, now 99, worked for years as an election-day staffer in Red Bluff, along with a team of other ladies who shared the same poll place duties year after year.

Several of the poll workers at the Mountain Community Center in Round Mountain told reporters they have been friends for years and look forward to chances when they can volunteer together. They said they know many of the voters who come to their polling place every year and explained how some even bring food to help the poll workers power through the long day, reminding everyone of how tight-knit their community is. 

Linda Tucker, a poll worker at the community center and an Oak Run resident, said this is her fourth election after her friend of 60 years, Terri, encouraged her to start volunteering at the polls a few years ago. 

“I enjoy being a part of our whole voting process,” Tucker said. “I think it’s the only way you make changes. Voting is so important. I’m glad to be a part of making it easier for people to go through the processes.” 

Tucker and other poll workers at the Mountain Community Center planned a potluck to keep them fueled throughout their 15-hour day. The meal included minestrone soup, macaroni and cheese, pigs in a blanket and lemon bars.

At the Mountain Gate Community Services District office in Mountain Gate, poll workers spoke briefly with Renata Brillinger and Lewis Buchner, who said they were visiting Shasta as nonpartisan election observers affiliated with the California Election Protection Alliance. The alliance is a multi-organizational initiative run by statewide nonprofit and voting rights advocate Common Cause California in cooperation with the Asian Law Caucus and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Brillinger and Buchner carried a checklist that they were filling out at each polling place they visited to help them determine whether poll places were complying with legal requirements related to voter access.

“I’ve been hearing so much about people not having confidence in our elections, and I wanted to see for myself on the ground what’s happening,” Buchner said. 

At the Trinity Alliance Church in Redding, precinct inspector Dennis Sweeney and his wife, a poll worker, have been working at the same poll places for nearly 10 years. He said in the last few elections, he was disappointed after Shasta’s newest elections official discontinued a long-standing tradition of providing cookies for poll workers. 

Today, to make up for it, one of the newer poll workers — a veteran who Sweeney drafted to volunteer at the polls because they’re neighbors — brought an assortment of cookies for them to enjoy throughout the day.

There were a few mishaps at some of the polling places this morning, including difficulties with setting up accessible voting machines. At the Redding Senior Center in Benton, poll workers noticed a crushed cable as they tried to set up the machine. They called elections officials for assistance but struggled to reach anyone, leaving the machine unusable. A poll worker contacted reporters later to say the problem was finally fixed at 12:15 p.m.

At the Shasta Lake Bible Fellowship in the city of Shasta Lake, poll opening was delayed by several hours due to poll workers not showing up to work. When reporters arrived at 9:40 a.m., Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis was on site setting up the accessible voting machine while poll workers and a supply captain looked for basic supplies to record important data, including the number of surrendered ballots. 

See more photos from the polls below.

Mary Beech, Annelise Pierce and Brenda Gonzalez contributed reporting to this story.

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