This story was updated Nov. 11, 2024, to reflect updated election results.
Sweet Home voters re-elected City Council incumbent Angelita Sanchez to a second four-year term with 1,566 votes, 11.87% of the total votes cast.
She was one of 12 candidates who ran for four council seats, by far the highest number in at least the last two decades.
Joining Sanchez on the council will be newcomers Aaron Hegge (13.12% / 1,731 votes), Ken Bronson (1,490 votes / 11.29%) and Chelsea Augsburger (1,331 votes / 10.09%). Those vote numbers were posted by the Secretary of State’s Elections Division on Nov. 11.
There might be some changes as mail-in and other ballots arrive and are counted. Final results, especially for close contests, may not be known until the election is certified and the official abstract of votes is published. Final certified results will be available 37 days after the election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Voter turnout was 62.79%, according to the Linn County Clerk’s Office.
Along with Sanchez, Bronson and Hegge will serve four-year terms, while Augsburger, as the fourth-place vote-getter, will serve a two-year term, all beginning in January.
Rounding out the field were Jennifer Victor (1,278 votes / 9.69%), Erin Barstad (1,213 votes/ 9.19%), Matthew Bechtel (1,133 votes/ 8.59%), David L. Lowman (1,091/ 8.27%), Brandy Wysong-Frick (843 votes / 6.39%), Elaine Evans (473 votes / 3.58%), Dawn C. Miller (469 / 3.55%) and Rejeana Hayes (462 / 3.50%).
In the races for two open Linn County Commission seats, incumbent Roger Nyquist appeared to have a sure shot at re-election to a seventh term on the commission’s Position 2, defeating challenger David Scranage by a 68.11% to 31.61% margin.
Incumbent Sherrie Sprenger, who was unchallenged, was re-elected to her second term on the
commission, to Position 3, by a near-unanimous vote.
Eleventh District state Rep. Jami Cate had a comfortable margin in her bid for a third term in the House with a 74.06% to 25.56% lead over challenger Ivan Maluski, who ran as an unaffiliated candidate.
In the race for the U.S. House District 5 seat, which represents all of east Linn County, as of
Nov. 11, challenger Janelle Bynum of Happy Valley, an Oregon state representative, was leading incumbent Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer with 47.78% of the vote to 44.98%, a margin of approximately 10,000 votes, with many still outstanding.
That race has turned out to be one of the most expensive House races in the country, according to votesmart.org, totaling some $10 million in campaign spending, much of it from outside groups dedicated to electing Democrats.
In the race for State Treasurer, as of Wednesday morning, Democrat Elizabeth Steiner led Republican Brian Boquist, 49.49% to 43.38%.
In the race for Secretary of State, Democrat Tobias Read led Republican Dennis Linthicum 54.46% to 42.07%.
Boquist and Linthicum are both state senators, but are barred from running for re-election to the Senate under a voter-approved law that punishes lawmakers who miss 10 or more days of work. They and eight other Republican senators staged a six-week-long walkout during the 2023 legislative session to stymie bills on abortion access, gun control and transgender health care.
In the race for state Attorney General, Democrat Dan Rayfield led Republican Will Lathrop 54.28% to 45.58%.
Measure 115, a constitutional amendment that authorizes the Oregon Legislature to impeach and remove statewide elected officials, was passing 63.94% to 36.06% on Nov. 11.
Measure 116, which would have created a commission to set salaries for state officials, was losing 52.69% to 47.31%.
Measure 117, which would have required ranked-choice voting in elections for federal offices and state executive offices and would have allowed ranked-choice voting in local elections, appears to be going down to defeat, 58.10% to 41.90%.
Measure 118, which would have increased corporate taxes and given all residents a yearly rebate, was trailing badly, 77.87% to 22.13%. The measure would have imposed an extra 3% tax on most businesses with sales exceeding $25 million a year. Those proceeds would have been distributed to every resident, regardless of their age or situation, provided they lived in Oregon for at least 200 days in the applicable year.
Measure 119, which would require cannabis retailers/processors to remain neutral regarding
communications to their employees from labor organizations, was passing by a 56.48% to 43.52% margin.
According to the County Clerk’s Office, voter turnout for Linn County was 70.92%.