Newcomer Mary Massey and incumbents Mike Adams and Dale Keene had leads for seats on the Sweet Home School Board in the May 16 election, according to vote totals posted Wednesday afternoon, May 17.
In the single contested race for the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Board of Directors, Position 2, incumbent Charlene Adams led challenger Dave Trask with 52.66% (1,018 votes) to 46.87% (906).
However, said Linn County Elections Supervisor Derrick Sterling, those numbers will change due to a new law, passed in 2021, which requires counties to count ballots postmarked by May 16.
The “postmark rule” states that as long as a ballot is picked up by the Postal Service and delivered within seven days to the elections office, it must be counted.
Also, Sterling said, ballots dropped off in other counties have yet to be delivered and the Elections Office staff will also need to deal with ballots that are unsigned or have “bad signatures.”
“We have a streamlined audit process for every step of the way,” he said.
That means that it may be nearly four weeks before final results are tabulated, Sterling said.
He said the most up-to-date numbers will be available on the county’s site, http://www.co.linn.or.us/clerk/page/election-archive.
As of Wednesday afternoon, for the School Board, Massey led incumbent Kevin Hill in the race for the Zone 3 (Foster) seat, with 54.58% of the vote (989 votes) to 44.92% (814) as of Wednesday.
Adams led challenger Jack Lapham with 74.84% of the vote (1,300) to 24.64% (428) for the Zone 5 (At Large) seat.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Keene led with 43.16% (789 votes) over challengers Manuel Grajeda, with 37.31% (682) and Leon Vineyard with 19.04% (348) for the Zone 9 (Sweet Home) seat.
Amanda Carter, unchallenged for the Zone 2 (Liberty) seat, had 98.57% (1,590).
Floyd Neuschwander, unchallenged for the Zone 4 (Cascadia) seat, had 99.01% (1,703).
Jenna Jo Northern, unchallenged for the Zone 6 (Crawfordsville) seat, had 98.98% (1,649).
For the Fire Board, newcomer Jim Yon had 99.05% (1,677) as he was unchallenged for the Position 1 seat, while incumbent Larry Johnson, also unchallenged, had 99.35% (1,674) for the Position 3 seat.
In the race for the Zone 1 (Sweet Home and Brownsville) seat on the Linn-Benton Community College Board of Directors, Incumbent Kristin Adams, who is currently the board chair, led challenger Stephen Irwin of Brownsville 53.34% (1,923) to 46.16% (1.664).
Bryan Gardner, running unchallenged for the Sweet Home Cemetery District Board of Directors Position 3, had 99.03% (1,334).