Residents of conservative California county brace for tumultuous elections

Jeanne Lowe of Redding, an employee at the Igo Country Store, stands for a portrait outside the store and bar in Igo, California. Photograph: Marlena Sloss

Residents of one of California’s most conservative counties are bracing for a contentious election, as the community grapples with a thriving election denialism movement that has amplified conspiracy theories about voter fraud and made life increasingly difficult for election workers.

In recent weeks, some residents of Shasta county, home to 180,000 people in the state’s far north, have urged the county not to certify the election results while one official warned that if Donald Trump is “cheated” out of the election, there would be “a price” to pay.