A ballot counting machine runs a batch of test ballots at the Deschutes county offices in Bend on Oct. 14, 2024. The county tested their vote counting system in preparation for the Nov. 5 election, part of their accuracy testing protocol before and after every election.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
The results from the 2024 general election in Deschutes County were certified this week. That means county residents will be represented by five commissioners instead of three.
The number of at large commissioners will increase in 2026, and sitting commissioners are already urgently discussing creating districts, a move voters haven’t weighed in on, yet. A mere eight days after the election, commissioners discussed the matter at their regularly scheduled meeting.
Measure 9-173, which passed with a two-thirds majority, was authored by John Heylin. Before the election, he said the county informed him creating districts would have required organizing another ballot measure. But, Commissioner Phil Chang said the county commission could have decided to put the question to the voters, but didn’t.
“It was essentially an undemocratic move on the part of my fellow commissioners to refuse to send a ballot measure to the voters directly without having to gather 7,000 signatures,” Chang said.
At the Nov. 13 county commission meeting, county clerk Steve Dennison and legal counsel David Doyle provided information about creating districts.
“It’s a little more complicated,” than just adding two more commissioners, Doyle said.
Commissioners were supportive of creating districts but had different ideas about how to go about it. Commissioners Patti Adair and Tony DeBone, who had both opposed expanding the commission size, were eager to see the new elected seats attached to particular geographic areas sooner than later.
Due to procedural timelines, Deschutes County residents couldn’t be represented by districts on the commission before 2029. That’s if voters approved districting in 2026, according to Deschutes County staff.
Before the election, the arguments for and against the measure focused on fiscal spending and on the ability for commissioners to meet and discuss county business - but with different concerns.
Opponents fear more commissioners will lead to a lack of transparency and “allow them to strategize.” Because there are three commissioners, two commissioners aren’t allowed to meet and discuss county business outside of a public meeting, according to state law.
Heylin has said that he hopes an expanded commission will be able to meet outside of public meetings to discuss and prepare.
Commissioner Phil Chang agreed that will help the elected officials.
“If they can go and hash some stuff out a little bit before the board meeting, I think that the quality of the discussion during the board meeting could be a lot better,” Chang said.
As conversations about districts progress, Deschutes County residents will first need to vote on if they want to have them and what those districts would look like.
The county commissioners could propose district maps, or task a “blue ribbon committee” to do it, Doyle said.
He warned about residents feeling fairly represented, bringing up “redistricting issues” or gerrymandering of voting districts that might favor one political party or another.
Chang also voiced concerns about the potential for gerrymandering. He cited geographic cohesion and equal population representation as important and necessary when creating districts, but also, addressing the perceived urban-rural divide between Bend and the rural communities of Deschutes County.
The soonest a district could be voted on would be November 2025, in a special election.
“The clerk advises against that though, because that would cost a fortune,” Doyle said in the meeting.
Dennison told OPB “it would be more than $100,000 to conduct a countywide election.”
The next opportunity to vote on districts would be May 2026, according to Dennison, and that wouldn’t cost the county more money since a regularly scheduled election will already be taking place.
That’s also when the county will vote in two new at large commissioners, along with Commissioners Adair and DeBone’s seats.