Now, it’s up to Malheur County voters to settle who will sit on local boards for school, recreation and fire districts.
According to Malheur County Clerk Gayle Trotter, ballots went out to registered voters on Wednesday, April 30, with Election Day on May 20.
She said ballots typically start to arrive within three to five days. Trotter said those not seeing a ballot by Monday, May 12, should contact her office.
According to Trotter, ballots must be turned in to drop boxes no later than 8 p.m.
Tuesday, May 20.
She said ballot boxes are located around the county, including the Malheur County Courthouse in Vale, libraries in Ontario and Nyssa and across the street from the post office in Jordan Valley.
She said ballots returned through the mail must be postmarked no later than May 20 and received by the clerk’s office by May 27.
Trotter said those wanting to vote in person can bring their mailed ballot to the county office and use voting booths in the hallway.
Trotter said a replacement ballot can be requested through a written process for those who damage their ballot or wish to change their vote before turning in their ballot. She said people can also drop by her office and fill out a form.
According to the state Elections Division, there are 18,373 registered voters in Malheur County, up from 18,303 a year ago.
Seats are being contested on school boards in Ontario, Adrian and Nyssa, and the Ontario Recreation District.
The Ontario School Board race will be the county’s largest race, with eight candidates vying for three seats.
Incumbent Matt Stringer is facing two challengers Lindsay Nieskins and Lisa Reeser.
Incumbent Blanca Rodriguez opted not to run for another term. Tomas Elizondo and Jenna Mejia are vying for her seat.
Abby Apodaca, Andrea Recla and Clay Hooker are running for the remaining four-year seat on the board. The seat has been vacant for over a year.
In Nyssa, incumbent Megan Robins faces challenger Nick Hartley for her four-year seat. Meantime, the remaining seats are uncontested.
For the Adrian School Board, two seats will be contested, with incumbent Quinten Shenk facing Eric White. Bob Holmes and Trisha Shartner are vying for a remaining four-year seat.
The Ontario Recreation District Board has two contested races, with Oscar Tamez challenging incumbent Mary Jo Evers and Sheila Hart and Sabrina Coley vying for incumbent Megan Cook’s seat. Cook opted not to seek another term.
In other school, fire and road districts, incumbents are running unopposed and a single candidate filed to fill a vacant seat. They face no opponents.
Trotter said while the May special election is significant, voter turnout is historically low. Voter turnout hovers around 20%, she said. Nonetheless, she said this election decides who sits on school and fire boards.
However, the positions candidates are running for are nonpartisan and local.
“It’s still an important election,” she said.
Trotter said an error last year at the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services division of the Oregon Department of Transportation caused 36 people without proof of citizenship to be added to Malheur County voter rolls. She said those people’s registrations were inactivated, and since then, nobody else without proof of citizenship has been erroneously registered.
Trotter said there is a chance the DMV could discover additional records of people with inadequate citizenship documents registered in the county. In those instances, her office would follow a state protocol of inactivating those registrations, and the ballots would be no good even if those people tried to vote.
While national tensions swirled around election integrity ahead of the general election, Trotter said she has had no concerns or questions during this election cycle. She said the positions people are running for are nonpartisan. According to Trotter, local special district elections typically have minimal political pressure.
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
BUY QUALITY – SUBSCRIBE – The Malheur Enterprise delivers quality local journalism – fair and accurate. We depend on support through subscriptions to deliver our reports. You can read it any hour, any day with a digital subscription. Read it on your phone, your Tablet, your home computer. Click subscribe – $7.50 a month.
