Election workers are seen from the rain-swept Dave Clark Path as they process ballots Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday was election day in Linn County. What reminded me was that workers in the clerk’s office were processing ballots in full view of people passing by outside on the Dave Clark Riverfront Path.
This was the first election since the county clerk’s office moved to the county-owned Wheelhouse Building on the Willamette River in August.
One of the passers-by able to watch the process from outside — if only for a few minutes during a bike ride in the rain — was me. A supervisor told me they intentionally left the blinds open so people could watch.
In case you forgot, Linn County voters on Tuesday were deciding on a four-year local-option property tax levy of $3.08 per thousand dollars of assessed value. The tax, 10 cents per thousand higher than now, would start in 2026 and continue to fund the sheriff’s office and other functions of law enforcement.
So how did it come out? The measure seems to have passed, but not overwhelmingly.
Here’s the first report shortly after voting closed at 8 p.m.: 13,822 yes and 12,321 no. At the time, County Clerk Marcie Richey estimated that around 1,000 ballots or less remained to be counted.
For the latest unofficial result when you read this, you can go here.
By the way, for this election Linn County had slightly more than 100,000 eligible voters. Looks like the majority of them sat this one out. (hh)
More ballot processing in another room.
That’s the closest vote they have ever had on that levy. People are getting fed up with high prices for everything and every service (home repairs, etc.) and high fees and taxes, too. The levy is a tax.
I voted for it, but reluctantly. I almost cast a No vote in protest. Not against law enforcement, but against the nickel and diming that seems to be happening with fees and taxes in Albany. City Council should be on notice.
As a senior on a fixed income it is becoming harder to manage my limited income. Social Security and retirement income increases do not even come close to the increases in living costs, including additional increases in add on taxes. .
Hasso, what is the process if someone wanted to train to be a volunteer vote counter?
Best way is to call the clerk’s office, I would think.
Hasso is right; contact the county clerk’s office.
However, the volunteers don’t actually count the votes. (At least they didn’t when I toured twenty years ago.). They vet the ballots by first comparing the signatures and eventually examining the ballots. If the ballot choices are unclear, the volunteer would then try to contact the voter to see what they had intended.
Each volunteer had only one task; subsequent steps were performed by different volunteers. It’s been a long time since I observed, so I may misremember some things. However, I was impressed by the logical progression of the vetting process and the separation of tasks that made the possibility of fraud extremely unlikely.
“””If the ballot choices are unclear, the volunteer would then try to contact the voter …”””
Aren’t the ballots separated from the envelopes by then, making it impossible to contact the voter? Seems necessary to preserve ballot secrecy.
My guess is that voters are contacted to correct things like signature problems before the envelope is opened.
It is a shame that only 20% of registered voters bothered to assert their right to vote. Many complain about election results and sit on their hands on election day. As far as this measure’s passage, more of our money out of our pockets. There was an increase, and our property assessments went up as well, causing more of an increase from this measure. Add it on to all our other bills going up, some just don’t understand why some vote no.
To bad they don’t allow you inside to actually observe and ask questions to ensure that everything is correct.
Actually they do. There’s space set aside for observers inside.
Never let the facts get in the way of your commenters’ falsehoods. It’s not good for clicks.
Our process has been very-very transparent for many years. Our country would be much better off it was national in scale & scope IMH !
Sad… when you look at the Levy on the Governments website, the sheriffs are giving people $10,000+ raises from 2024/2025 to 2025/2026. The 1 custodian wage increase was approved by the Linn Co. Commissioners for this amount.. WTF ? Also.. are these counted by hand or a machine ? Thanks ! If you want to look at the levy you can view it here. The Levy starts on page 134 https://www.linncountyor.gov/media/51806
Apartment dwellers need to be taxed directly. Then it might make a difference