Shasta County voting-by-mail process to make sure your vote is counted
REDDING, Calif. — A lot of concerns have been expressed from the public about voter fraud after President Donald Trump criticized the voting process and the US Postal Service nationwide.
Voting by mail is not new for the state of California or in the Northstate and it is becoming the ideal option for people to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shasta County Clerk Cathy Darling Allen who has been with the county office for years explained the process of what her team goes through to count your vote.
"This large machine back here is our ballot sorter. It is not a tabulator, it does not count votes. It will take a photograph or image that we can match back to the voter registration database, so as the envelopes go through the path of the sorter, it will take a picture on the screen, a human will verify the picture on the envelope, matches the voter registration database and then that ballot will get forwarded upstairs for processing," Darling-Allen said.
Darling-Allen said say many Shasta County residents have called or contacted their office out of concern regarding the voting process. This concern comes after speculation and doubts coming from President Donald Trump that has caused many question voter fraud.
"People who are concerned, we have an official observer program that is required by state law that we are happy to have anybody come down and watch the process, talk to us, and ask us questions," Darling-Allen said.
For individuals who are not convinced or reassured that their vote is safely counted, she said the office gives you the option to submit your vote yourself.
"You can bring your ballot here and to the office any day after October 5 and run it through the ballot tabulator here in the lobby. Watch your vote get counted and have some peace of mind that way. You also can do that by vote-by-mail ballot at your precinct on election day so when we send a ballot to you, you can take your time voting, and go to on your election day to the precinct and put it through the scanner there but you have to go to your assigned precinct... We’ve also had drop boxes."
