Would You Cross a Picket Line to Vote?

Union members are picketing outside a polling place in Elk Grove Tuesday, but it's not because of any ballot measure or candidate.

Raley's employees who walked off the job Sunday are continuing to protest their employer, even while the store on Elk Grove Boulevard is doubling as a place for residents to vote.

"We want everyone to go vote, we just hope they don't shop here," Raley's head clerk Doug Troutman said as he held a picket sign outside the store. "A lot of people come up here waving their ballot, [saying] 'I'm just here to vote and I support you.' We love hearing that."

Troutman, a Raley's employee for 13 years, said the union's main concern is the company's proposal to eliminate healthcare benefits for retirees.

Michelle Leister, who has been a regular customer at the store since it opened, said she has stayed away since the strike began.

"It made me very uncomfortable," Leister said of passing protestors, many of whom she now considers personal friends, to cast her ballot. "I can feel for their plea."

Sean Barry, who lives nearby but doesn't shop at the store, disagreed.

"It doesn't bother me a bit because I'm here to vote," Barry said. "It wouldn't bother me either way."

Sacramento County Elections officials briefly considered moving the polling place outside or to another location but thought it would be too confusing for voters. 

Inspector Dawn Sirstad said she asked the protestors to refrain for a day or not picket in front one of the store's doors, but they declined.

"I don't think they're necessarily harassing [anyone]," Sirstad said. "We want everybody to feel comfortable."

Elections officials are also offering curbside voting at the store–a poll worker will bring a ballot and a clipboard out to a voter's car–but so far no one had requested it Tuesday afternoon.

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Disclosure: Cody Kitaura is a former Bel Air employee and former member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

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