That flies in the face of historical precedent and differs significantly from plans by other county election officials, who have said they will release updated results multiple times on election night. Hall’s decision to update tallies less frequently than other counties could delay the results of key races, including the three-way race for governor, the national race for Congressional District 5 between Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner and Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer and two important races for the Clackamas County Commission, among others. Kimberly Webb, a county spokeswoman, confirmed Monday that Hall will release the first batch of county results at 8:10 p.m. on Tuesday, but won’t update results again until Wednesday at 6 p.m. She said Hall gave her no reason the county chooses to update the results so infrequently. Hall did not return calls late Monday afternoon from The Oregonian/OregonLive. Instead, Multnomah County says on its elections website it will post results at 8 p.m. on election night and will update county tallies every two hours until 2 a.m. Wednesday before posting additional updates at 6 p.m. every night. Dan Forester, director of the Washington County Board of Elections, said he did not yet know when the county would update results Tuesday night, but said he would be surprised if it did not update its results at least “three times on election night.” . Counties generally release their first batch of results around 8 p.m. on election night, with those results generally including ballots submitted by the end of the day on Monday. Counties then update results throughout election night as they continue to process ballots submitted on Election Day. Under new administrative rules this election cycle, counties had to publicly post information on their website about how often they plan to report results and provide the same information to the Secretary of State’s Office. Oregon Secretary of State Semiah Fagan said counties can do their own reporting programs as long as they follow legislative rules, which Clackamas’ program does. “The media often run the results on election night, but the official results will not be certified by the county until Dec. 5,” Fagan said in a statement. “Elections officials prioritize accuracy and transparency when processing ballots over speed.” Ben Morris, a spokesman for Fagan, said election officials are collecting a significant number of ballots before Tuesday and will report the first batches of county results at 8 p.m. on election night. But there will likely still be many outstanding ballots that will not be included in this 8 p.m. post. Four years ago, Clackamas County received 25 percent of its ballots — 49,000 — on Election Day. Hall’s 20-year tenure as county clerk has been marred by years of mishaps, including the largest election debacle in state history during the May primary. Hall had given advance notice in May that tens of thousands of damaged ballots would have to be copied by hand, but she balked at getting help from state and county officials for days. The fiasco delayed election results for 10 days after the rest of Oregon’s counties completed their counts. Morris said the Secretary of State’s Office does not anticipate Clackamas County experiencing long delays this election. Hall is running for re-election against challenger Kathryn McMullen, a Clackamas County resident who currently works as an election specialist for Multnomah County. —Jamie Goldberg? [email protected]; 503-221-8228; @jamiebgoldberg To sign up to receive our weekly newsroom newsletter recapping our top election coverage, just click here. Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today at OregonLive.com/subscribe
