Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home voters generally matched up to Linn County voters in the May 20 primary election, according to recently completed summaries of local precinct voting released by the County Elections Office.
The exceptions included four area precincts that voted with the state for Barack Obama in the Democrat presidential primary. Those included 020 in east Linn County and Cascadia, 031 in the Upper Calapooia-Holley area, 077 in the Crawfordsville area and 099 in the Liberty area. The remainder of Sweet Home’s precincts voted with Linn County for Hillary Clinton, who won the primary in Linn County.
Measure 53 barely passed statewide, with only five counties as a whole actually voting in favor of the measure. Only precinct 061, located inside Sweet Home city limits, narrowly voted in favor of the measure, 84-79, together with those seven counties and the state as a whole. Remaining Sweet Home area precincts voted with Linn County and most other counties in the state to try to defeat the measure.
The measure, a constitutional amendment, modifies provisions governing civil forfeiture related to crimes and permits the use of proceeds by law enforcement. The measure was forced into a recount because the results were so close. Counties supporting the measure were Polk, Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Deschutes, Marion and Benton.
In the county commissioner position three Republican primary, Michael Spasaro won district 077 in the Crawfordsville area while Will Tucker won the remaining Sweet Home precincts and the county overall.
In all other areas, the Sweet Home area voted with the state and county overall.
Democrat voter turnout was generally 60 to 70 percent in the Sweet Home area while Republican turnout ranged from 42 percent to 54 percent.
The following are the results of local precincts voting in the May 20 primary election. Bold indicates the statewide winner in a race while italics indicate how Linn County voted.