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Preliminary results show most voters rejected an overhaul of Lane County’s redistricting process.
Initial results show just 25% of voters supported the charter amendment.
The proposal would rewrite a portion of the county’s charter, which is similar to a constitution. It would also create an independent redistricting committee with strict membership requirements.
That committee would also be required to adopt a new map before the next county commissioner election in 2026, throwing out the current map.
The proposals’ supporters, most of whom lean conservative, argued the current map is unfairly Eugene-centric and therefore shouldn’t be used.
Opponents, including former U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, argued the amendment was an attempted conservative gerrymander.
On Tuesday night, DeFazio said the result showed that voters don’t want the gerrymandering they’ve seen in national politics to happen at the local level.
“This (outcome) will ensure the honesty of elections, fairly drawn districts, competitive elections,” he said. “The sickness in Washington DC, and the House of Representatives, gerrymandered districts on both sides of the aisle, we’ve got to cure that.”
A key supporter of the amendment, Lane County Commissioner David Loveall, told KLCC on Tuesday night that he was disappointed by the results and blamed its failure, in part, on what he called the "funky wording" of the measure.
KLCC's Nathan Wilk contributed to this story.
