The elections process in Clackamas County has again come under fire after thousands of voters this week received the wrong pamphlets for a city mayoral election.
Voters in Oregon City are supposed to be deciding on their next mayor. But when they opened their ballots, they found pamphlets for the wrong district.
County officials say they noticed the error on Thursday and worked quickly to correct it. Voters in the county’s 600 precinct should expect to get new pamphlets in the mail by Saturday. The correct pamphlet is also available here.
This incident follows a ballot blunder in May in which the county issued ballots with smudged barcodes. Voters didn’t get primary results for weeks, and the fiasco cost the county about $600,000 to fix.
FILE— Clackamas County Elections Clerk Sherry Hall speaks at the office in May. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)
Gillian Flaccus / AP
Much criticism about this and other election errors has been directed toward county clerk Sherry Hall. During the aftermath of the May primary, Hall said most ballots impacted belonged to Democratic voters. Hall’s own political background leans Republican.
The Portland Tribune reports that only one mayoral candidate for Oregon City — Denyse McGriff, a registered Democrat — paid to have her statement published in the pamphlet Hall’s office failed to provide to voters this week.
Hall’s position, which is nonpartisan, is up for re-election in November.