As election workers brace for possible conflict on Election Day next week, Shasta County's registrar of voters is already getting pushback from at least one member of a group she said was "aggressive and inappropriate" in her office during the June primary.
Cathy Darling Allen, the county's registrar of voters, said last week she plans to take steps to avoid a repeat of the June 7 primary when election observers allegedly became confrontational in her office.
Darling Allen said during this election she will not spend hours repeatedly answering the same questions, and if observers persist to the point of interfering in the vote tally she may call the police and have them removed from her office.
Shasta County elections officials said at the time that discussions with representatives of anti-establishment candidates became contentious and at least one worker said she felt intimidated by them.
Richard Gallardo, who is running for a seat on the county Board of Education, said he was in the elections office June 7, and disagreed with Allen's characterization of the observers' behavior.
"No citizen interrupted, obstructed, interfered, or otherwise kept ANY elections process from occurring on the night of June 7, 2022. If that had happened, Kathy (Cathy) would have had the legal ability to have enforcement action," Gallardo wrote in an email.
Gallardo acknowledged there were heated conversations but said no one attempted to intimidate elections staff.
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