It's late and my pain meds are just starting to kick in (sprained ankle) so I'll keep this short. But after speaking with newly re-elected Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship, I've got this to report about the too-close to call city Council race between Chuck Arnold and Scott Ramsay .
The un-official margin of victory for Ramsay is eight votes out of the more than 10,000 cast in the race. The election won't be certified for three weeks, however. In the meantime, the county needs to sort through roughly 300 contested ballots and about 300 provisional ballots -- an unknown number of which will be verified before the certification. The clerk's office has not separated those ballots to determine which ones apply to the Arnold-Ramsay race, maybe all of them--maybe none. Regardless, if the margin of victory for either candidate remains within about 40 votes there is a state-mandated hand recount. That count will likely begin around Nov. 30, around the same time the county begins a state required election audit, which will allow the county to use the same canvassing board for both tasks, according to Blankenship. Until then, we won't be sure just who will join the council in January. But if you happen to see either of the candidates in the meantime, congratulate him on surviving one of the toughest election seasons that I remember witnessing.
