A 24-hour ballot drop site at the Banks Public Library. Photo: Chas Hundley
The May 18, 2021 special districts election ended at 8 p.m., and the first wave of early results are in.
Results will continue to roll in as ballots are counted, and can be found on the Oregon Secretary of State’s website at results.oregonvotes.gov.
For Banks-area races, some race winners are clear, owing to the fact that the candidates were running unopposed. Others are tighter and will require more votes to come in before this newspaper is comfortable declaring a winner.
For the Banks School Board in Position 1, Leslee L. Sipp leads, with 53.53% of the vote, or 705 votes, while her opponent Jodi Hailey trails at 40.62% of the vote or 535 votes, and Chad Mueller has 5.54% or 73 votes in the race for Position 1, despite suspending his campaign for Position 1 to run a write-in campaign for Position 2 against Corissa Mazurkiewicz.
In Position 2, the ballot listed only Corissa Mazurkiewicz after incumbent Raymond Mott dropped out of the race. Mazurkiewicz leads with 62.56% of the vote or 696 votes, while write-in — which doesn’t list a name in initial results, but the majority of which are likely for Chad Mueller — trails at 37.35% or 415 votes.
In Position 4, incumbent Ron Frame has the largest lead in a Banks School Board race with 74.08% of the vote, or 866 votes, while challenger Curt VanBlarcom has 24.72% or 289 votes.
For the two director seats up for election on the Banks Fire Board, Position 1 challenger Matt Wren leads at 60.8% or 687 votes, while incumbent Matt Pihl is trailing at 38.67% or 437 votes.
Running unopposed, incumbent Kevin Henning is winning another term at 94.86% or 775 votes.
For our readers in the Roy and Mountaindale communities living in the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue service territory, the race for TVF&R’s board of directors offers no surprises. Three seats were up for election, and each incumbent filed to run for another term with no opposition. In Position 1, Bob Wyffels has 98.76% of the vote, Position 2’s Clark Balfour has 98.95%, and Position 3’s Gordon L Hovies has 98.92%.
For the Portland Community College Zone 7 race, Kristi Wilson has 55.58% or 9,912 votes to Reiko Mia Williams’ 43.23% or 7.710 votes.
Election results are considered unofficial until votes are certified on June 7.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
