Voter turnout highest in Crook County so far
Published: May 16. 2009 4:00AM PST
Crook County led the tri-county area in voter turnout on Friday, with the county Clerk’s Office having received ballots from 35.8 percent of registered voters in Tuesday’s election.
In Jefferson County, voter turnout was at 25.2 percent and in Deschutes County, it was at 14.9 percent.
Voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots in drop boxes or at county clerks’ offices. It is too late to mail ballots.
Crook County Clerk Dee Berman said one reason for her county’s high voter turnout could be the Crook County School District’s local option tax on the May 19 election ballot. The tax would raise money for full-day kindergarten, facilities maintenance and extracurricular programs such as sports, music, drama and outdoor school.
“People usually turn out for the school measures,” Berman said. “It’s a money measure, so that makes it a hot topic.”
The school district faces a budget shortfall, which could increase depending on funding from the state, and the tax would raise an estimated $4.8 million over five years. It would cost 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. For a home assessed at $100,000, property owners would pay $60 per year in additional property taxes.
In Jefferson County, Clerk Kathy Marston said Friday that the U.S. Postal Service had returned 517 undeliverable ballots to her office because the voters were no longer living at the addresses listed on their registration documents. In the November 2008 election, only 264 undeliverable ballots were returned to the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office.
“It’s kind of a huge increase,” Marston said, although she did not know what could have caused the increase.
The clerks in Crook and Deschutes counties said they have not noticed abnormally high numbers of undeliverable ballots.
“These are all common things that we see for every election, nothing that’s unusual or troubling,” Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship said of the 3,808 undeliverable ballots returned to her as of Thursday.
“If they didn’t get a ballot, they should contact the clerk’s office for a replacement ballot,” Marston said.
Hillary Borrud can be reached at 541-617-7829 or at hborrud@bendbulletin.com.
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