This story was originally published on YachatsNews.com and is used with permission.
The lone race for a seat on the Lincoln County board of commissioners is still too close to call after challenger Rick Beasley of Depoe Bay moved to within 49 votes of unseating five-term incumbent Claire Hall of Newport after more than 29,000 ballots were counted, with possibly still another 3,000 to be tallied by next week.
After the first round of counting Tuesday, Hall had a 232 vote lead over Beasley with 90 percent of ballots counted. By 5 p.m. Wednesday, that difference had narrowed to 49 votes — Hall had 12,858 to Beasley’s 12,809.
The next round of results in Lincoln County races are not scheduled to be released until shortly after 5 p.m. Friday and then not again until next Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Beasley, a Depoe Bay city councilor, campaigned against Hall’s record, had the endorsement of Sheriff Curtis Landers and said the county needed a change after her 20 years in office. Hall called her record one of accomplishment on housing, social services, and response to the pandemic and 2020 wildfires.
The two squared off in the general election because Hall did not get more than a 50 percent majority in the May primary when the votes were split between her and four challengers.
As of Wednesday night, the clerk’s office had processed 29,351 of the record number of 41,288 ballots sent to Lincoln County voters for a turnout of 72 percent. By the time all ballots are processed by the end of the week, county clerk Amy Southwell expects 33,000 ballots to be counted for a turnout of 80 percent, typical of a presidential general election.
Elsewhere in Lincoln County
Voters in Yachats, Waldport, Newport, Toledo, Depoe Bay, and Siletz were electing mayors – but only two races were contested.
In the race for mayor of Waldport, former city councilor Heide Lambert maintained a lead Wednesday over city councilor Malaia Kilduff 689 to 523. Both conducted a vigorous social media and letter-writing campaigns and on Wednesday evening Kilduff conceded the race and congratulated Lambert.
Four people, including incumbents Jayme Morris and Greg Dunn sought three Waldport city council seats; Morris had 849 votes, former councilor Jerry Townsend 798 votes, Dunn 792 votes, and Thomas Ebling was fourth with 440 votes.
In Lincoln City, in the one contested race for the city council, Kevin Hohnbaum maintained his big lead over Tammy Sanford 794 to 493 for the Ward III seat.
In Depoe Bay, mayor Kathy Short was seeking her third term and defeating challenger Cindi Ciuffo 585 to 415. Two of three council races were contested, with Autumn Watson leading Kathy Wyatt 467 to 359 and Debbie Poland leading Hannah Grant 466 to 370.
In Toledo, Andrew Keating was the top vote-getter in a four-way race for three seats on the city council with 876 votes. Jackie Kauffman was second with 788 votes, Tracy Mix third with 745 and William Riley fourth at 623.
Toledo voters were also narrowly approving a new city charter 771 to 747.
As for the unopposed mayor races in the other cities, Craig Berdie was re-elected in Yachats, Jan Kaplan, who was appointed Newport’s mayor in 2023, was elected to the position Tuesday; and Rod Cross was unopposed in Toledo as was Will Worman in Siletz.
For more coverage of the 2024 elections, visit our Elections page.
