A crucial election deadline came and went on Tuesday and brought what appeared, at last, to be a firm conclusion: Oregon Democrats will have supermajorities in
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, voters whose ballots for the Nov. 5 election were rejected because of errors could no longer 鈥渃ure鈥� them with election officials, correcting problems and ensuring they would be tallied.
That didn鈥檛 matter in any race but one.
In the closely watched contest for House District 22, both parties had been feverishly chasing outstanding ballots in the run up to the deadline. That meant reaching out to voters who had an error in their ballot and were ripe for curing.
When the Marion County Clerk鈥檚 Office published results Tuesday evening, the outcome seemed settled: Democrat Lesly Munoz had beaten Republican state Rep. Tracy Cramer by 161 votes.
With the result, Democrats will flip the Woodburn district and secure 36 seats in the House 鈥� a three-fifths supermajority that would allow the party to pass any bill, including new taxes, on a party-line vote. Senate Democrats will also hold that margin, after from Republicans this year.
Munoz works as a consultant with the Oregon Education Association, the state鈥檚 largest teachers union. But in a release Tuesday evening, she highlighted her partnership with the state farmworkers union, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), which helped her reach Spanish-speaking voters in the district.
鈥淔armworkers need a seat at the table in our state legislature,鈥� Munoz, a Woodburn resident, said in a statement. 鈥淩ecently farmworkers won the same all other Oregon workers enjoy, and now we have a voice in Salem to fight for equal rights in other areas.鈥�
In HD 22, late votes proved decisive. Returns on election night showed Cramer with a lead of roughly 5 percentage points, leading some news outlets to call the contest.
But as Marion County election officials slowly tallied ballots received on Election Day 鈥� and those that came later, but were postmarked by Nov. 5 鈥� the tide shifted strongly toward Munoz.
Ten days after the election, Munoz had clawed . It grew from there.
Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess said in an email Tuesday night the county had finished tallying nearly all ballots, with just a few left countywide.
Reyna Lopez, president of PCUN, said Wednesday that the farmworkers union knocked on more than 30,000 doors in support of Munoz, with a focus on Latino voters.
鈥淭here were a lot of late, late votes,鈥� Lopez told OPB. 鈥淲e were knocking doors until the very end, and there were still people telling us that they hadn鈥檛 filled out the ballot.鈥�
Representatives from Cramer鈥檚 campaign did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday, but Cramer has suggested that a legal challenge could be in the works.
鈥淥ur campaign has retained legal counsel to ensure the integrity of this election, all laws are followed, and every legal ballot is counted,鈥� she said in a statement on Nov. 15. 鈥淲e know Oregon鈥檚 election system registered illegal voters, and we will fight to ensure that it does not affect the outcome of this race.鈥�
Cramer鈥檚 campaign has repeatedly nodded to recent revelations that the state鈥檚 Driver and Motor Vehicles Division in recent years.
The Oregon Secretary of State鈥檚 Office says just a tiny fraction of those 鈥� fewer than 20 鈥� might ultimately have voted as noncitizens, and none were permitted to vote this year without proving citizenship.
