The race to replace two departing members of the Josephine County Board of Commissioners appears to have been narrowed from eight down to four candidates after the second run of ballots in the May Primary Election.
For Position #2 on the Board, Chris Barnett had a substantial lead with 44.74% of the ballots with Colene Martin in second place with 24.66%. Candidates Mark Jones and Dan Mancuso trailed the leaders with 17.52% and 12.82%, respectively.
For Position #3 on the Board, Pat Fahey was the leader with 39.65% of the vote while Ron Smith was second with 25.86%. Candidates Nathan Gonzalez and Russell McAlmond trailed the leaders with 22.22% and 11.97%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Josephine County voters sent all three ballot measures down to defeat. Measure 17-116 to replace the County Charter was losing 66.64% to 33.36%. Measure 17-117 to fund the Animal Shelter and Animal Control was losing 59.41% to 40.59%. Measure 17-118 to authorize a bond for Three Rivers School District building improvements was also losing by a 68.07% to 31.93% tally.
For Senate District 2, it was Republican Noah Robinson defeating Christine Goodwin by a count of 60.04% to 31.93%. Robinson easily defeated Goodwin in Josephine County, but the district also includes portions of Douglas and Jackson counties.
For State Representative District 3, Democrat Mark Seligman was defeating Dustin Watkins by a tally of 60.12% to 37.56%.
Josephine County Clerk Rhiannon Henkels reported that more than 10,000 ballots were hand-delivered over the past two days and her staff was extremely busy. As of 11 o'clock last night, the local turnout was 39.42%. Elections staff will continue counting ballots and the next returns are expected by 5 p.m. today.
