WWW . THESKANNER . COM
N OVEMBER 7, 2012
P ORTLAND , O REGON
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 5
25
CENTS
Election
News
C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
NW
Election
Results
WAITING TO VOTE
Historic measures
pass in Washington,
fail in Oregon
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
H
istory was set Tuesday night in
Washington State, where same sex
couples will now be allowed to
marry and marijuana has been legalized, to
be regulated like alcohol.
Also in Washington, in what national pun-
dits called the most competitive race for
governor in the nation, Democrat Jay Inslee
narrowly bested Republican Rob McKenna
in unofficial results, 51 percent to 49 per-
cent.
In Oregon, the incredible roller coaster of
an Election Night that swept President
Barack Obama back into office saw a paltry
54.98 percent voter participation in Mult-
nomah County; by contrast, Oregon’s
statewide voter participation rate soared to
over 70 percent.
Big winners in Portland included mayoral
candidate Charlie Hales and City Commis-
sioner Amanda Fritz, who won their races
by big — in Hales’ case landslide — mar-
gins.
Meanwhile every proposed tax and bond
measure passed in the City of Portland,
including the Arts Tax, the Portland Schools
bond and the Multnomah County Library
district.
Oregon’s hot-potato statewide measures
may be the reason for the higher state
turnout, with a major battleground erupting
around the Cannabis Tax Act, Measure 80.
While Multnomah County voters passed the
pot measure by a significant margin, at the
state level it went down with a no vote of
54.83 percent.
More votes were cast in that one measure
than in any other measure on the Oregon
ballot — 1,408,700 people weighed in on it.
Interestingly, the number spreads for some
races showed almost no voter participation
— on Wednesday morning, Greg Macpher-
son stood as the unofficial winner of the
campaign for mayor of Lake Oswego, with
Mercedes White Calf and Shameka Hubbard waited for more than two hours in the rain Tuesday night to vote at
Multnomah County Elections office in Southeast Portland. Turn to pages 4 and 5 for our Election Night photo page,
and congratulations to all who stayed in line to make their ballot count.
Multnomah County Elections:
The Skanner News goes inside the Red Room where votes are
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
A
s Americans turn out to
vote, the Department of
Justice is investigating
ballot tampering in Clackamas
County. A temporary elections
worker, Deanna Swenson, is
accused of filling in unmarked
spaces to select Republican can-
didates.
Swenson was
immediately fired.
According to Willamette
Week, Swenson says just two
ballots were involved. Ballot
See ELECTION on page 3
tampering is a Class C felony
that can earn offenders up to 5
years in prison and a $125,000
fine. The alleged offense appar-
ently happened after the ballots
had been opened but before they
were counted.
So what security measures are
in place to protect your vote.
The Skanner news visited
Multnomah County Elections
office accompanied by one of its
chief critics, Andrew Nisbit. A
self-described, “semi-retired
Republican old fart,” and “a
hippy and Grateful Dead fan
who supported Reagan and
nuclear power,” Nisbet is an
analyst with the energy consult-
ing firm, McCullough Research.
He’s also a longtime GOP
observer of Multnomah County
elections.
Knowing that a Republican is
accused of ballot tampering
turns his stomach, he says. “I’d
like to believe nobody would be
as stupid as that idiot in Clacka-
mas County, but human nature
is not perfect. And people of ill
will can be Republicans as well
as Democrats.”
Nisbet says his main concern
with the Multnomah County
system is the Unity machine, the
computer that tallies the accu-
mulated results of the machine
count, precinct by precinct.
What’s Nisbet’s beef?
He says the computer is vul-
nerable to tampering through its
USB ports, if somebody were to
insert a USB drive that altered
the inner software. What would
happen if somebody were to
substitute a USB drive with a
program to alter the results for
See BALLOT on page 3
INDEX
New Race for Women’s Health in 2013
News ................2,3,8,9
The Better Half, set for June 30, will include a half marathon, relay
Opinion .....................9
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ........11
Bruce Poinsette
Of The Skanner News
F
elicia Hubber’s father started the
Hood to Coast Relay 32 years ago and
she was there for the first race.
“I was three months old on my mom’s
backpack,” she says. “I’ve been there for
about 29 of the last 32 in one regard or
another.”
Now the Vice President of Hood to
Coast/Portland to Coast Relays, Hubber is
announcing a new race, the Better Half.
The event, set for June 30 of next year,
will focus on promoting women’s health
and will include a half marathon and relay.
Hubber says the inspiration for the new
race came from her husband Jude, who calls
women “the better half”.
“We wanted to do something more for
women and that was oriented towards
women’s wellness and promoting women’s
health,” she says. “It helps in regards to the
local community and trying to get people
more active and live healthier lifestyles so
that they live longer. You tend to notice that
people that become more active tend to eat
healthier and they feel good.”
See HEALTH on page 3