Today was the end of the seven-day deadline for mail-in ballots to be returned to the Marion County Elections Office after the May 19 primary election where the races for Salem mayor and four city council seats would be decided if a candidate got over 50% of the votes.
As I wrote about on May 20 in “Election for Salem mayor and city council turned out well for progressives, but not perfectly,” from the initial results of these five races it seemed virtually certain that Vanessa Nordyke would defeat incumbent Julie Hoy in the mayor race, incumbent Linda Nishioka would defeat Manny Martinez in the Ward 2 race, and David Inbody would defeat incumbent Deanna Gwyn in the Ward 4 race.
No big surprise: the three progressives, Nordyke, Nishioka, and Inbody, still have a comfortable lead over their conservative opponents. With two conservative incumbents losing, these races would produce a 8-1 progressive majority on the city council, compared to the current 6-3 majority. However….
Two races were too close to call as of May 20. Betsy Vega had a 52-48 lead over incumbent Mai Vang in the Ward 6 race, and incumbent Micki Varney had a very narrow 50.25-49.57 lead over Chris Cummings in the Ward 8 race.
Marion County says that “Voters whose signature is challenged or who forgot to sign their return envelope have 21 days after the election to cure those issues.” That’s two additional weeks from today. So it is possible that the vote totals in the Ward 6 and Ward 8 races will change from what I’ve shown below, which are the results as of 9 pm today, May 26.
In Ward 6, Mai Vang has narrowed Betsy Vega’s lead, but Vega still has a 50.46-48.92 advantage. Forty-two votes separate them, down from seventy-nine votes on May 20. Vega probably will end up being the winner. That’s a conservative pickup, producing a 7-2 progressive majority on the city council.
In Ward 8, Micki Varney still has a very small lead over Chris Cummings, 50.16-49.64. Currently Varney leads Cummings by only 35 votes, almost exactly the same as her 36 vote lead on May 20. Probably Varney will hold on to win. Being the incumbent, this doesn’t change the progressive-conservative split on the city council.
Vang’s loss will sting for progressives, while the wins by Nordyke and Inbody will be a soothing salve. Picking up a seat on the city council and retaking the mayor’s office — progressives will be happy with that. Of course, this assumes that Varney wins reelection, which seems more likely than a loss.
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I’m still curious about Betsy Vega’s actual residency and whether she hads met the full requirements. City code says that a person must reside in the ward for which they are applying for 12 months.
Did she actually live in Ward 6 for that long, or did she give an address that was in the area but she actually lived somewhere else?
Progressive Salem has unearthed some court documents that throw some doubt as to where she was actually living for the full 12 month requirement.
Lots of shenanigans happen with Ward 6 elections. It deserves a closer look
Waiting for verification of Ms. Vegas’ residency