| 11/8/2006 | Email this article • Print this article
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| Mark Webb |
| | Grant County votes | Note: With the exception of the governor's race, these are not statewide returns They are the votes returned in Grant County as of late Tuesday
Unoffical results as of 10:10 p.m., Tuesday, Nov 7, 2006
Governor
Ted Kulongoski, Dem (county) 786 (state) 342,747
Ron Saxton, Rep (county) 2,383 (state) 284,816
Joe Keating, Pacific Green (county) 20 (state) 9,032
Richard Morley, Libertarian (county) 39 (state) 7,816
Mary Starrett, Constitution (county) 118 (state) 24,389
U S Rep , Congress, Second District
Greg Walden, Rep (county) 2,739
Carol Voisin, Dem (county) 460
Jack Alan Brown, Jr , Constitution (county) 110
Oregon Rep , 60th District
Tom Butler, Rep (county) 224
Peter Hall, Dem (county) 60
Oregon Rep , 59th District
John Dallum, Rep (county) 1,784
Jim Gilbertson, Dem (county) 997
Grant County Judge
Dave Traylor 1,457
Mark Webb 1,815
Prairie City Mayor
Jim Hamsher 57
Melanie DeJong 86
Stanley Horrell 253
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Webb takes judge's seat
By PATTY MANTIA
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY - Candidate Mark Webb won the most talked about race in Grant County - county judge - late Tuesday in unofficial returns, even though ballot tallying stopped before it started due to a broken optical scanning machine.
A repairman from Bend saved the day and fixed the machine.
At 10 p.m., the county clerk's office declared Webb the winner of the race.
The clerk's office counted 3,414 ballots and reported a nearly 76 percent voter turnout in Grant County.
Webb, 47, of Mount Vernon, received 1,815 votes (55.38 percent) for county judge. His opponent, Dave Traylor, 63, of John Day, received 1,457 votes, (44.46 percent), according to ballot counts. The official count will be certified in 10 days and reported to the Oregon Secretary of State's Office, County Clerk Kathy McKinnon said.
Webb said he appreciated the support.
"I'm pleased with the results and would like to thank everyone that helped make this possible." Webb said. He was driving back from Medford after attending a soccer game with his son.
Traylor said "the citizens" of Grant County have spoken. He said he would tell his friends, "I came in second and my opponent came in next to last."
Webb and Traylor matched wits in a few joint appearances in the county over the past several months, including a debate sponsored by the Blue Mountain Eagle that drew 175 people.
Prairie City mayor's race was an upset. Candidate Stanley Horrell won 253 votes and was far outpacing current Mayor Jim Hamsher, who received 57 votes.
The third candidate, Melanie DeJong who ran for public office for the first time, received 86 votes.
Horrell sought the mayoral position with priorities that included increased citizen involvement and running an efficient city. He served four years on the Prairie City School Board and also served on the city planning commission. DeJong had urged better communication between city government and citizens and citing the need for a cost-effective water/sewer line replacement master plan.
Hamsher identified completion of the city's water project as a major issue facing the city. Hamsher won the mayoral race two years ago in a coin toss after he and candidate Paul Woodworth received the same number of votes.
Water in Prairie City also was a key issue in the Prairie City Council as well as mayoral race. Ground water has contaminating drinking water, leading to decisions to drill new wells in the city. The newly drilled wells, north of town above Dixie Creek, are awaiting water quality approval of a state agency.
The three open positions on the Prairie City Council appeared to be going to candidates Pam Woodworth with 265 votes, Frank Primozic with 246 votes and William B. Harrington with 194 votes. The two other contenders were Mona Lindsey, 136 votes, and Linda Harrington, 80 votes,
Also up for grabs were three positions on the Seneca City Council. As of Tuesday night, the frontrunners in that race were Andrea Officer with 84 votes, Michelle J. Walker with 79 votes and Char Steinbeck with 45 votes. However, running closely after third place were Michael McManus with 43 votes and Sam Hornbeck with 40 votes.
Candidates in the Seneca race identified loss of revenue, need for adequate housing, residential growth and job loss as issues facing the community.
Employees in the county clerk's office fed test ballots in the vote counting machine early Tuesday and the machine operated perfectly, said McKinnon. However, when the first official ballot was fed in the machine, it refused it.
"Just as soon as we put a real ballot in it, it jammed up," McKinnon said.
The machine, an Election Systems & Software (ES&S) Model 150, worked fine during the May primary, she said. A service technician from Bend's Ryder Graphics election service and printing fixed the voting machine at 4 p.m. Tuesday and officials began processing the ballots. The technician, who had come to Canyon City after fixing a ballot machine in La Grande, then headed to Heppner to fix another machine, the county clerk's office said.
Two years ago, a different Grant County voting machine rejected ballots during the national election, delaying final counts.
For results on other statewide elections and measures go to http://egov.sos.state.or.us/division/elections/results/
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