Election certification day!

Today is election certification day, which means that the "abstracts" for the primary election are now available. These are the numbers that show precinct by precinct how many votes came in for each race, what the turnout was, etc. It's also when you can find out if you were elected as a Precinct Committee Person (PCP) and what the write-ins were for positions in which no one filed.

It was no surprise that I was re-elected as a PCP today - I was the only name on the ballot, and with three votes in my household there was already more than enough to get elected. I ended up with more than 180 votes. We also elected a male PCP through write-in (he received more than the 3 necessary votes). Numerous other people received only one vote, and I plan on contacting them to find out if they'd like to be appointed to a PCP position - there are still numerous available.

As soon as the abstracts became available for Multnomah County, I immediately downloaded the numbers and began preparing them for importing into Excel. I've been keeping track of numbers since the 2002 primary, which allows me to compare turnout, spot trends in voting, etc. I also looked at the write-in numbers for positions where there was no candidate filed. There were rumors about the Republicans trying to get candidates on the November ballot via write-in, and I know that was the case here in my State Senate district since we'd received a letter and post card from the Oregon Republican Party encouraging such a write-in on the ballot.

It's always funny to look through the write-ins. Often times you'll find a number of Republicans who have written in the name of the Democratic incumbent. Sometimes you'll even find they've written in a Democratic candidate's name. In looking through the write-ins for Multnomah County, I had some pretty big laughs:

• Steve Novick's name showed up multiple times, including for Attorney General and for State Senate District 25 (Gresham area).
• It appears that John Kroger received more write in votes for AG on the Republican ballot than anyone else. Taking into consideration misspellings and such, he received around 400 write-ins. Greg Macpherson had almost 170, Kevin Mannix 50, and Ron Saxton just over 100.
• In House District 47, currently represented by Speaker of the House Jeff Merkley, Democrat Jefferson Smith received more write-in votes on the Republican ballot than anyone else. Guess that shows how well he worked the district - even Republicans knew who he was.

What I also found is that it appears the Oregon Republican Party was successful in getting Dave Kim written in for the Senate District 25 seat. My preliminary count from the PDF is that he received more than 900 votes. I don't know what the threshold is for something like this, but it would be my guess that 900+ would be enough. So that means while we're all out working for Nick Kahl in HD 49 and Greg Matthews om HD 50, that we'll need to work for Laurie Monnes Anderson as well.

Update: The Oregonian has a story on Kroger's votes for the Republican nomination for AG. Apparently his large number of votes wasn't just in Multnomah County - he received nearly 1,600 votes in the top 5 counties. Kroger now has the option of accepting the nomination, once the write-in votes are official. If he does so, which he has indicated he would, no Republican candidate will be on the November ballot.