‘A madness has taken hold’ ahead of US midterms: local election officials fear for safety

Voters cast ballots in Georgia. In California, election officials say they are facing aggressive bullying from residents who believe there is widespread voter fraud. Composite: Guardian Design/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Inside the office of the Shasta county clerk and registrar of voters, which runs elections for about 111,000 people in this part of far northern California, Cathy Darling Allen can see all the security improvements she would make if she had the budget.

“We have plexi on the counter downstairs for Covid but that won’t stop a person. It’s literally just clamped to the counters,” the county clerk and registrar said. For about $50,000, the office could secure the front, limiting access to upstairs offices, she estimated. Another county put bulletproof glass in their lobby years earlier, she knew, something officials there at one point considered removing, though not any more.