Lane County Special Election results: Ballot measures, contested races
Register-Guard
As of noon Tuesday, the Lane County voter turnout was 21.32%, with 58,032 ballots counted.
The first round of Lane County May 18 Special Election unofficial results were released a little after 8 p.m. Tuesday with 56,969 ballots counted in the first round.
The Register-Guard is updating results Tuesday night for the ballot measures and contested candidate races as they are released.
Measures
Yes votes: 534
By Henry Houston and Taylor Perse
The May 18 special election didn’t have the national or state policy stakes of the two 2020 elections, but the results did bring some diversity to local education boards. From contested races for seats on the Lane Community College Board of Education to Eugene School District 4J and Springfield School District, it was an education-based election.
In Eugene School District 4J, Laural O’Rourke, a Black woman, won Position 2 by a landslide with 81 percent of the vote, defeating Harry Sanger who received 17 percent. In Position 6, Maya Rabasa, a woman of color, is the clear winner with 85 percent of the votes. Although Dakota James Boulette dropped out of the race, he still ended up with some votes.
All three of Eugene School Board s seats up for election this year are contested, with seven candidates appearing on the ballot.
Most of the candidates are newcomers, with the exception of sole incumbent Judy Newman. Whoever wins each of the seats will hold it for a full four-year term.
The Register-Guard sent all the candidates a questionnaire that asked about relevant experience, reasons for running and plans to make schools more inclusive. Here s a bit more about each of the candidates, based on their responses.
Since filing, Dakota James Boulette, 22, decided to stop campaigning and instead is supporting Maya Rabasa for the seat. However, Boulette s name still will appear on the ballot. Candidate Bryan Costa did not return multiple calls for comment.
As they say, all politics is local, and in Lane County, local politics gets heated when it’s school board elections.
The issues are huge in K-12 education racism and diversity, COVID, standardized testing and more. We are impressed by all the people willing to take on this tough and important duty. Good board members are simultaneously independent thinkers, willing to question how the board is voting and why, and yet also able to function effectively with other board members they may not always agree with to get things done.
It’s great when voters and candidates get fired up about the school board especially if it means positive changes for the kids. So knowing that Eugene and surrounding communities take their school boards seriously, our small editorial board Zoomed with as many candidates as we could, and sent surveys out to the ones who we either couldn’t squeeze in or who didn’t respond. Some candidates didn’t respond in time or at all.
58:59
Listen to the City Club of Eugene s April 8, 2021 program: Changes on the Eugene 4J Board? A Candidate Forum
Program Date: April 9, 2021
Air Date: April 12, 2021
From the City Club of Eugene:
On May 18, voters in Eugene School District 4j will have the opportunity to choose among the candidates for three seats on the board.
The race for Position 3 features two newcomers to elective politics taking on an incumbent. The race for Position 6 has only one candidate, hoping to replace veteran Jim Torrey, who was appointed to fill a seat unexpectedly vacated mid-term. (A second candidate for Position 6 dropped out too late for his name to be deleted from the ballot.) Two new candidates vie for Position 2. For 12 years, this seat was held by Anne Marie Levis, who withdrew from the race to clear the path for a candidate who, she said, “Can do some of the things I can’t.” Then a second candidate tossed his hat in the ring at the last minute. In this program, all six candi