HASSO HERING

Linn County Clerk Marcie Richey in her new office, which overlooks the Willamette River through the trees.

The new quarters of the Linn County Clerk’s Office could not be more convenient for people going past just outside on the Dave Clark Riverfront Path. On Monday I got off the bike and stopped in.

The office takes in the entire ground floor of the Wheelhouse Building at 421 Water Ave. N.E. It handles marriage licenses and property records, but its main function affecting all citizens is to conduct elections.

County Clerk Marcie Richey gave me a tour of the spaces dedicated to processing and counting ballots, from opening the envelopes when they arrive to storing the paper ballots in the vault after the count is complete.

She told me she had designed the layout herself, making sure that it allowed for complete transparency as well as security of the election process.

There are windows everywhere, and there’s space set aside for poll watchers to observe the process from beginning to end.

For added security, the county replaced the outside windows overlooking the Dave Clark Path and Willamette River with special shatter-proof panes

The clerk’s office moved from the courthouse to the county-owned Wheelhouse Building toward the end of August. The first election conducted from the new quarters is the one that ends Nov. 4.

The only thing on the ballot in Linn County is the renewal of the county’s law enforcement tax levy. The first ballots went out Sept.  19, to voters in the armed forces.

As of Monday, one ballot had come back. (hh)

Security cameras keep an eye on a ballot drop box outside and another box at the courthouse downtown, along with the rooms where ballots are processed and counted.

These chairs, along with others, are reserved for observers when ballots are processed.

The collection of campaign buttons and other mementos, begun by Del Riley and continued by Steve Druckenmiller, made the move to the new office.