Paid ‘supply captains,’ not volunteer rovers, will support Shasta’s poll workers this Election Day
The change means long-term volunteers who’ve provided support to poll workers in the past won’t play the same pivotal role this time. But Shasta’s election staffers said the new approach will still get the job done.
Long-term Shasta County poll workers who’ve previously served in a position known as rovers were recently told that their services wouldn’t be needed for that role during the upcoming Nov. 3 election.
Shasta’s volunteer rovers used to migrate from poll place to poll place within their assigned areas during elections, proactively searching out problem spots, answering questions and providing supplies. This election, they’re being replaced by “supply captains,” a similar paid role that will be more reactive.
Some still plan to serve as poll workers but worry that without rovers Shasta’s election may not run smoothly.
Michelle Tyson, who was hired by Shasta elections official Clint Curtis last year and is now serving as Shasta’s poll worker coordinator, said she’s not concerned about switching out rovers for supply captains.
“They’re basically rovers,” she told poll workers who showed up to a training session at Shasta Bible College last week. “They do the same work as rovers, they just have a different name.”
In response to questions from a reporter, Tyson acknowledged that the individuals hired as supply captains don’t have the same level of experience as many of Shasta’s long-term rovers. She explained that the role will be held by the same paid part-time temporary staffers who are also working as poll closers, another role that Curtis implemented for the first time last election, with mixed results.
In order to make better use of the paid poll closer positions, Tyson said, the office has transferred responsibility for precinct coordination and support from the former rovers to 16 part-time paid staffers who will work as supply captains during the day and poll closers at night.
She said they’ll show up in response to concerns shared by poll places rather than migrating from precinct to precinct in an attempt to address problems before they become severe.
“I told them to just stay in their spot and go if they need to,” Tyson told poll workers last week.
At the heart of the network of volunteers and part-time paid staffers are Tyson and her boss, Curtis. Both of their cell phone numbers were shared with poll workers during training, along with the information that they may be hard to reach due to high demand.
“I get all the calls from you,” Tyson said to poll workers with a chagrined smile. “I get all the calls from the rovers, and then they also route all the other calls to me for some reason … and I’m also doing the call center, as well.”
Speaking to a reporter at the Market Street office last month, Curtis discussed the change in roles this election, saying with a laugh that he’s implementing “bouncers” instead of rovers, his creative alternative for Tyson’s more formal title for the new role.
He said the decision was made because the election office had “more than enough people” sign up for paid part-time extra help roles, so he decided to utilize them instead of volunteers for precinct oversight.
“It saves a lot of money,” Curtis claimed, adding that now, “we don’t have people out there who don’t need to be out there.”
Curtis described creating “stocking depots,” within the county’s network of about two dozen polling places, with supply captains being assigned to each depot and coordinating to support the needs of four polling places each.
Asked how the new staff will know what they’re supposed to do, Curtis, like Tyson, said supply captains will simply respond to calls from poll workers or election staff, telling them where they’re needed to address a problem.
“You don’t really need someone running around just watching,” Curtis said, making light of the former, more proactive approach.
California’s Poll Worker Training Standards don’t specifically describe the role of rovers, but Shasta’s former longtime Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen told a reporter today that the role has existed in Shasta since 2004.
That’s the year, she explained, when Shasta County moved away from punch cards to begin using electronic voting machines.
“It was a really large leap in technology,” Darling Allen said, “and poll workers really appreciated having immediate help available.”
She said the role of rovers was designed to provide proactive support, beginning with checking in with each precinct in the early morning to ensure that all assigned staff showed up and that the polling place was able to open on time.
They assisted with set up where needed, Darling Allen added, and provided help with bringing supplies, but they were also the first line of defense when poll workers had an issue with a voter that they didn’t know how to resolve, or were not having success in deescalating.
From her perspective, the former election official said, the last 10 years of increased tension around the election process have only made the use of rovers more necessary and important, not less.
“Unfortunately the current ROV doesn’t have the institutional knowledge to understand the arc of poll worker experience, rover experience and what the needs of the people on the ground conducting an election are,” Darling Allen said of Curtis, who ran his first election last year and has never served as a poll worker, at least in Shasta.
The success of Curtis’ new plan for poll site coordination will become clear next Tuesday, Nov. 3, as community members show up to vote in person at their local precinct or drop their sealed vote-by-mail ballot off at local polling places by 8 p.m.
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Ya, because “Supply Captains” doesn’t sound sketchy (let alone stupid) at all.
I can’t help myself. Everything Curtis and his band of election-denier employees do seems designed to rig the outcomes to the best of their collective ability, in my estimation. Curtis has stocked the positions that have blind spots with his wiggiest delusional whack-jobs, like Ron Plumb and Laura Hobbs. I suspect these paid “supply captains” will similarly be loony, inexperienced allies.
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And now he’s created a paid position for SoCal carpetbagger/yahoo Arnie List, who has already confessed to committing voter fraud in this very election by voting here, where he does not have a primary residence. That’s if you believe him—he’s a bald-faced liar, so that could easily be untrue.
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Well, at least freak of nature Corinne Cliford has disappeared from the scene.
The continued attempt by curtis to undermine our free and fair elections is a direct result of actions and inaction by the BOS. The Board could have gotten rid of curtis when he was determined to have harassed staff, mis handled ballots, failed to include the COR clerk on the ballot. The list goes on. Will district 5 voters show common sense and get rid of Kelstom as district 1 voters did with Crye? We now have paid thugs and election deniers working the polls. What could possibly go wrong?
It’s not hard to explain why I am worried about the security of this election when I read about this nonsensical decision by Clint Curtis. Paid inexperienced rovers? Candidates working the election? Curtis asking Trump to intervene? What a nightmare
I was thinking the same thing as Steve Woodrum. Usually experience county workers, who can and historically do take a paid day to work the elections (not exactly volunteers).
I would add that the difference between county employees and the people Mr. Curtis has hired on is a notable one.
Gobbly gook streaming from Tyson and Curtis’s mouth, I hope the new
‘rovers’. like Gallardo, Jones, Gardner and other similar election deniers will get their job figured out by Nov. 3. Is this the same Tyson that’s running for school board ? Hmmmm, who’s going to count her ballots ? Recuse time. Go to the polls in a mask, Happy Halloween.
“He said the decision was made because the election office had “more than enough people” sign up for paid part-time extra help roles, so he decided to utilize them instead of volunteers for precinct oversight.
“It saves a lot of money,” Curtis claimed…”
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What world does he live in?
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Since when would it be cheaper to go from volunteers to hourly paid workers?
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(I’m sure everyone can hear my eyes rolling in my head at this point.)
Vote early and turn your ballot in at the drop box at the election office if you can.
We should do our part to lessen the strain on this new setup as much as we can, at least until they get all the bugs worked out.
“She said they’ll show up in response to concerns shared by poll places rather than migrating from precinct to precinct in an attempt to address problems before they become severe.”
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Thank you Shasta scout, for pointing out that they have moved from being proactive to reactive.
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What could possibly go wrong??
What could go wrong? Maybe they’ll wait until the last minute to order non-English ballots as required by law, and it’ll be too late for the vendor to print them.
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What? You say that already happened?
I served as a poll worker during the Bush and Obama administrations. As I recall, the position of rover was filled by senior County employees. During one election, our rover was the District Attorney. I respected that high ranking people served as rovers during elections. It showed that the entire County government took elections seriously.