Ryan Patraw processes ballots at the Marion County Clerk’s Office in Salem on Monday, May 16. Each ballot goes through several steps before it is scanned to have the vote tabulated. (Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Marion County elections workers have tabulated fewer than half of the ballots returned by voters, but expect to have the majority processed by the end of the day Wednesday.
Polk County too is still counting ballots, though elections clerks on Wednesday morning did not have an estimate of how many remained to be tallied.
That means there may not be a clear winner in some local races until Wednesday or later. Mayoral candidate Chris Hoy is up 1,861 votes over opponent Chane Griggs, and the ward 4 city council race, which covers south central Salem, has Dynee Medlock winning by just 28 votes over Deanna Gwyn.
County Clerk Bill Burgess told Salem Reporter that as of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, his office had received 70,285 ballots for the May 17 primary election. Several thousand more arrived in the mail Wednesday morning and have not been processed, he said.
After two rounds of counting Tuesday night, Marion County had recorded votes for 32,014 people, or fewer than half of ballots returned in total.
Burgess said his office will post an updated count by 5 p.m. Wednesday which will include an additional 30,000 to 35,000 ballots – the majority of those received so far, but with several thousand still to be counted.
Ballots are likely to trickle in for days due to a change in Oregon law which for the first time allows ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be counted. Previously, Oregon law required ballots to be received at the elections office or a county dropbox by 8 p.m. on election day to be tabulated.
Burgess said the impact of that law on the election remains to be seen.
“We’re not sure how the mail is going to turn out,” he told Salem Reporter Tuesday night.
In Polk County, initial results Tuesday night included 18,084 ballots. An elections worker reached by phone Wednesday said the office did not have an estimate of how many ballots remained to be counted because they were still being scanned in.
Polk County will also post updated results by the end of the day Wednesday.
-Rachel Alexander
