School, fire board races, police bond: Vote by 8 p.m. to be counted

The Washington County Elections Division is urging those who wish to vote in Tuesday's special district election to vote by 8 p.m.

"With an expected low turnout, just a handful of votes can decide who leads" special districts like school and fire districts, Washington County said in a press release.
En español.

For a vote to be counted, a signed ballot must be dropped in one of the 21 official drop sites throughout the county by 8 p.m., or postmarked by 8 p.m.

A stamp is not needed to mail a ballot. Many USPS locations close before 8 p.m., and mail drop sites are checked the final time for the day before 8 p.m., which means it's a safer bet to drop a ballot off at an official ballot drop site Tuesday evening.

Locally, a drop site is located in Forest Grove in front of the Forest Grove City Library on Pacific Avenue. Postmarked ballots received after May 27 will not be counted, the Washington County Elections Division said.

As of Monday, the Washington County Elections Division had received over 60,000 ballots, a turnout of a little more than 15%.

There were 399,071 registered voters in the county as of Tuesday.

For more information on voting, visit the Washington County Elections Division website.

What to expect from News in the Grove's election coverage

Here's how News in the Grove covers local elections.

News in the Grove does not make race calls per se. We are not the Associated Press. Instead, we note the most up-to-date vote tally, and indicate where the vote lies, and the likely outcome.

For example, if Bob McBoberson held 65% of the vote at 8 p.m., you might see a headline like "McBoberson takes commanding lead in initial election results"
and the text will likely say something like "Unless McBoberson's opponent sees a surge in support in subsequent vote counts, McBoberson is on track to win his seat."
Apologies to any Forest Grove residents named Bob McBoberson

A few minutes after 8 p.m., we'll have three stories up on our website.

Initial results for races across the state will be published online at results.oregonvotes.gov.

Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District

We will note the results of the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District race, which is the simplest race of the night: Each of the two positions on the ballot drew just one candidate, so, barring an unprecedented situation like a stealth write-in campaign, each candidate will win their race.

The Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District covers areas just outside of Forest Grove like Verboort, Dilley, and Gales Creek. Elected officials on the board do not have a say in how Forest Grove Fire & Rescue operates in the city of Forest Grove.

The Washington County Elections Division website erroneously lists the agency as "Forest Grove Fire District," an entity that does not exist. Forest Grove Fire & Rescue is a division of the city of Forest Grove. The agency serves the territory in the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District under a longstanding contract, and the city of Forest Grove and the district co-own the Gales Creek Fire Station.

Benjamin Otto, a Dilley area candidate and Neal Hammond, a Gales Creek resident, will win. We'll note the initial vote tally and move on. That story will be updated Wednesday morning with the latest vote count.

Forest Grove Police Bond

One hot-button item on the ballot is Measure 34-343, a bond that would finance the replacement of Forest Grove's current 1970s-era police station.

Debate on the topic has been present since the issue was raised, but no organized opposition has materialized to fight the measure. The Washington County Voters' Pamphlet attracted a single argument in favor, a statement submitted by Forest Grove Mayor Malynda Wenzl and cosigned by City Councilors Mariana Valenzuela, Angel Falconer, and Michael Marshall, and Forest Grove School Board Chair Kristy Kottkey.

No arguments in opposition were submitted the Washington County Voters' Pamphlet.

Forest Grove School Board

We'll then move on to three positions on the Forest Grove School Board, two of which have two candidates running for the same seat, while position 3 attracted three candidates.

What's next

Additional results will be published at 10 p.m., at which time we'll update each story.

If there are any close races, we will wait for the midnight update and make a final update for the night. Wednesday morning, we'll publish another set of stories with the most current results.

Because Oregon allows ballots postmarked by May 20 to be counted if they are received by May 27, the outcome of closes races may not be known right away.

In 2024, Former Mayor Peter Truax narrowly lost an election to the Forest Grove City Council by 110 votes, and along the way, the results were close, often just a handful of votes away from tipping one candidate or another into a win. Truax is once again in the mix, running this time for Forest Grove School Board position #2 against opponent Jodi Blue.

If this happens again, we'll continue to follow election results until an outcome is certain. Vote counts are considered "unofficial" until certified on June 16.