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

In recent weeks, some residents of Shasta County, home to 180,000 people in the state's far north, have called on the county not to certify the election results, while one official warned that would be the case if Donald Trump sought the election “Betrayed” would mean “a price” to be paid.

As America's attention turns to the swing states that will determine the outcome of the race between Kamala Harris and Trump, Shasta County offers a look at how the voter denial movement and extremist politics are impacting communities across the country.

“It's already been a tense time in Shasta County for the last three to four years,” said Nathan Blaze, a local activist and chef. “It’s becoming more and more divided.”

In recent years, Shasta County has gained notoriety for its far-right politics and the spread of election conspiracy theories.

The county overwhelmingly favored Trump in 2016 and 2020, and the region became a center of the election denial movement, which falsely claimed that Trump did not lose the 2020 presidential race.

Since then, a group of local activists who believe there is widespread voter fraud have been tireless in their efforts to uncover evidence of “tampering” and redesign the electoral system.

The group successfully lobbied officials, some of whom have also spread misinformation about elections, to scrap the county's voting machines and implement a hand-counting system. Their efforts were encouraged by movement leaders like Mike Lindell but ultimately thwarted by a new state law that prevents manual counts in most elections.

They kept a close eye on poll workers, showed up at the county office to observe the process and created an environment that poll workers said was hostile. Poll workers are often questioned about processes and procedures by people who cannot be persuaded to trust the election system regardless of what poll workers say, and they have reported that observers sometimes film or record them.

The elections office has taken additional security measures to protect its employees. Still, about half of all employees have left the office in the past year, including one person who reported that the office was being harassed by an elected official.

Tanner Johnson, who worked in the office for more than a year, told local newspaper A News Cafe that working in such difficult conditions was affecting his mental health and that he feared there could be violence in the office.

“There's just been a lot of saber rattling over the last few years, and it's just been ridiculous, with one pissing contest after another,” he told the outlet. “But at some point someone will actually draw the saber. And I don’t want to be there for that.”

At a loud and tense meeting of the county Board of Supervisors last week, the group of residents who have been spreading misinformation about elections complained about what they called a lack of transparency from the elections office and called on officials to “pressure” the chief exercise the office.

“You can’t certify the election next Tuesday no matter what because of what’s happening in this office,” one man said.

Some residents told the Guardian that the situation was calmer than in previous elections, but there was still underlying discontent.

Blaze said he planned to visit the election office Tuesday evening “to watch the observers and film them so they don't try to do anything bad.”

He and others have made it their mission to speak out against the extremism that now dominates local politics, he said. “We stood up to these people. “There is nothing a bully is more afraid of than someone who is not afraid.”

Read more of the Guardian's coverage of the 2024 US election: