Days before election, far-right officials in California county insist on hand tally

Despite a warning from the state, board supervisors threaten to sue if Shasta county registrar uses voting machines

In Shasta county, California, voters will decide this week on a school board race, the formation of a new fire department and a local tax. What observers in California and across the US are watching most is not what they will choose - but how their votes will be counted.

In the past months, Shasta has come to play an outsize role nationally as officials in this rural region of northern California have taken center stage in the election denial movement, which proposes fixes" like the sole use of manual tallies to enhance election integrity" based on the lie that the presidency was stolen from Donald Trump.