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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
More than half of eligible Oregonians have already voted
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — A day before
the deadline to vote, Kevin
Cadwallader walked into a
grocery store on Monday and
put his ballot into an offi cial
drop box festooned with
American-fl ag balloons.
“I wanted to see if there
was going to be anything else
that comes out in the press,”
Cadwallader said once he
was back in the parking lot
after inserting his envelope
through the slot in south
Salem. There was a lot of
“he said, she said” in the U.S.
presidential race, Cadwal-
lader noted, but nothing that
changed his vote.
A total of 50.3 percent
of Oregon’s 2,567,282
registered voters had cast
ballots by mail or in drop-
boxes by Monday morning,
a day before election day
on Tuesday, the Oregon
secretary of state’s offi ce
said. That’s a slightly smaller
percentage than in the 2008
and 2012 elections.
Just a couple of blocks
from the Oregon State
Capitol, which is quiet
this time of year with the
Legislature not in session,
the Marion County Clerk Bill
Burgess’ offi ce was a hive of
activity.
Burgess had about 100
part-time workers sitting at
rows of tables and standing
at counters, going through
stacks of incoming ballots
that are enclosed in envelopes
with each voter’s signature.
Those ballots that seemed
to have more than one vote
for a candidate or for a
measure, or a write-in candi-
date, received extra scrutiny
in another room.
“We cherish the idea that
everyone’s vote is important
and sacred,” Burgess, who
was wearing an Ameri-
can-fl ag tie, told a visiting
mother and her four young
children, who were staring
goggle-eyed at all the activity.
In a backroom, the shelves
were laden with ballots,
whose results have been
digitally tabulated by his
people but not yet counted.
The results will be added
up by computer after polls
closed. He said there were
about 80,000 ballots in the
room already, available to
be hand-counted in case a
recount is ordered.
Similar activities were
being done Monday in all of
Oregon’s 36 counties.
Grant County, in eastern
Oregon, has the highest
return rate so far on ballots,
RODEO: Lilly thanked her
fi nancial supporters and God
Continued from 1A
and progressed from there.
Ashley, 30, has a similar
story. A barrel racer since she
was small, she qualifi ed for
the INFR at about Lilly’s age
(though she didn’t go) and
competed at the Pendleton
Round-Up.
Lilly credits her aunt with
shaping her as a barrel racer.
The two train together and
spend hours on the road.
“She always been there
for me,” Lilly said.
“She is like the daughter
I never had,” Ashley said,
shooting a warm look at her
niece.
Lilly, whose fi rst run is
around 1 p.m. on Tuesday,
admitted she is nervous, but
is confi dent that her pre-com-
petition ritual will calm and
focus her.
“Me and Ashley — we
pray before every run,” she
said.
Claire, who is a grand-
daughter of the storied thor-
oughbred Secretariat, is ready
for prime time after a busy
season and regular workouts
to maintain her muscles and
lungs. Training involves trot-
ting and galloping in pastures
and on a four-speed hot
walker on her grandparents’
Cayuse acreage. She guides
Claire through a miniature
three-barrel course. She also
prepared Hammer, a speedy
male chestnut that will share
the trailer with Claire and
provide backup.
Ashley expressed confi -
dence in her niece
“Lilly’s got as good a
shot as anybody if she can
keep the barrels standing,”
she said. “It’ll be tough, but
she didn’t get to the national
fi nals by accident.”
Lilly thanked her fi nancial
supporters and God.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
POTATOES: Production two
tons per acre higher than usual
Continued from 1A
the plants and cause them
to rot before they can be
sold to supermarkets or food
processors.
Fortunately, the early
start allowed most growers
to avoid that issue, Brewer
said. The Columbia Basin
is also home to sandy,
well-drained soils that dry
out more quickly, meaning
farmers don’t have to wait
long after it rains to get back
out into the fi elds.
“I really don’t think it
was an issue,” Brewer said.
“Most people were done by
the time the moisture really
started coming.”
Greg
Harris,
farm
manager for Threemile
Canyon
Farms
near
Boardman, said they fi nished
harvesting storage potatoes
by Oct. 10, which was a
few days ahead of schedule.
The farm grows 7,000 acres
worth of spuds — including
several varieties of Russets
— which are sold to proces-
sors including french fry
giant Lamb Weston.
“Because most of the rain
came during the second half
of October, most people had
the bulk of storage done,”
Harris said. “Otherwise, it
defi nitely would have been a
problem for us.”
Along with storage,
Threemile Canyon delivers
potatoes directly from the
fi eld to customers through
early November. That’s
where having sandy, absor-
bent soils comes as a benefi t,
Harris said. In particular,
processing plants around
the Tri-Cities leaned heavily
on the farm during the late
October rains.
“They
were
almost
doubling our output out of
here for three or four days to
get potatoes to those plants,”
he said.
The early season growing
conditions have made for an
excellent crop, Harris said.
He estimates production to
be about two tons per acre
higher than usual.
“We’re happy with how
it turned out,” he said.
“Certainly, it was one of our
better crops.”
Statewide,
Oregon
farmers grew nearly 1.22
million tons of potatoes
in 2015, worth $176.45
million. Brewer said the
region from Hermiston to
Boardman averages 30-plus
tons per acre, mostly for
processing into products like
fries, potato chips and potato
fl akes.
Basin Gold, a cooperative
of Oregon and Washington
growers, also specializes in
producing and marketing
fresh market potatoes, like
the ones on supermarket
shelves. Bud-Rich Potato,
of Hermiston, is part of that
co-op.
Most farms should be
producing at or above
average throughout the area,
Brewer said.
“Everybody had a pretty
good fall harvest,” he said.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
with 62.7 percent. Columbia
County had only 43.6
percent.
Oregonians vote by mail.
While it’s too late to mail in
a ballot for it to be counted,
voters can take them to drop
boxes as long as they do so
by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Cadwallader, a construc-
tion worker with six children,
said a lot is resting on the
outcome. “It comes down
to, what kind of country do
I want my kids growing up
in?” he said.
In this photo
taken Oct.
19, a man
fi shes for
salmon in
the Snake
River above
the Lower
Granite Dam
in Washing-
ton state.
There is a re-
newed push
to remove
the Lower
Granite
and multi-
ple other
dams on the
Snake River
to save wild
salmon runs.
Jesse Tinsley/The
Spokesman-Review
Judge’s order revives movement
to remove Snake River dams
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — Conservation-
ists and others have renewed a push to
remove four giant dams from the Snake
River to save wild salmon runs, after a
federal judge criticized the government
for failing to consider whether breaching
the dams would save the fi sh.
The judge earlier this year rejected
the government’s fi fth and latest plan for
protecting threatened and endangered
salmon in the Columbia River system.
Agencies must take a new look at all
approaches to managing the southeast
Washington dams, including breaching,
said U.S. District Court Judge Michael
Simon in Portland, Oregon.
“This is an action that (government
agencies) have done their utmost to avoid
considering for decades,” he wrote.
His order triggered 15 public meet-
ings in Washington, Idaho, Montana and
Oregon, where the dam removal issue
has percolated for two decades.
The fi rst meeting was held last month,
and the fi nal one is scheduled for Dec.
8. After that, a plan to save the salmon
must be created.
The Snake River, at just over 1,000
miles, is the 13th longest in the United
States, fl owing from the western border
of Wyoming to its confl uence with the
mighty Columbia River in Washington.
For much of its history, the river and its
tributaries produced salmon runs in the
millions that sustained Native American
tribes who lived near its banks. The best
salmon spawning grounds were in Idaho,
and were hampered by the construction
of the four dams.
Environmental groups say restoring
the salmon runs is impossible with the
four dams in place.
The dams provide about 5 percent of
the region’s electricity, roughly enough
power for a city the size of Seattle. A
recent report by the federal Bonneville
Power Administration said if the Snake
River dams are removed, a new natural
gas plant would be required to replace
the lost electricity.
Thirteen runs of Columbia and Snake
river salmon and steelhead remain endan-
gered or threatened despite billions of
dollars spent over decades to save them.
Sam Mace, a spokeswoman for Save
Our Wild Salmon, said the dams’ benefi ts
are not worth the loss of the iconic fi sh.
“There is more than one way to
get wheat to market,” Mace said. “But
salmon only have one way to travel, and
that’s in the river.”
Salmon supporters say restored
salmon runs will help the economy.
“Healthy salmon populations could
support tens of thousands of jobs and
billions of dollars annually in the recre-
ation and tourism economy,” said Liz
Hamilton of the Northwest Sportfi shing
Industry Association.
Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe also has
called for removing the dams and
restoring the fi sh to harvestable levels.
“The four dams on the lower Snake
River have had a devastating impact
on salmon,” said McCoy Oatman, the
tribe’s vice chairman.
Opponents of breaching the dams say
they provide irrigation, hydropower and
shipping benefi ts, and allow grain barges
to operate all the way to Lewiston, Idaho,
more than 400 miles from the mouth of
the Columbia River.
Wheat from as far as North Dakota
is shipped downriver by barge for
export to Asia. The Snake River also
is used to transport about 60 percent
of Washington’s wheat and barley crop
to Portland. A tug pushing a barge can
haul a ton of wheat 576 miles on a
single gallon of fuel.
ELECTION: Umatilla and Morrow county
voters make up 1.7 percent of state’s electorate
Continued from 1A
32 percent of Dems were
undecided compared to 22
percent of Republicans.
Democrat Gov. Kate
Brown also could be in
for a tense election night.
Survey USA’s October
poll for KATU News had
Brown leading Bud Pierce,
a Salem oncologist who has
never held public offi ce, 46
percent to 42 percent, with
8 percent undecided and 4
percent picking “other.”
Former Portland Trail
Blazer turned Republican
gubernatorial
candidate
Chris Dudley was within
reach of taking the offi ce
in 2010. Also a political
newcomer, he was up
More online
For updated election
coverage visit
eastoregonian.com
against Gov. John Kitzhaber,
trying for a third term in the
top offi ce after an eight-year
hiatus. Kitzhaber won 49
percent to 48 percent, a
meager difference of 22,238
votes, according to election
results from the Oregon
Secretary of State. The
total voter turnout was 71.9
percent.
Kitzhaber won in eight of
Oregon’s 36 counties, which
included Lane, Multnomah
and Washington, the state’s
population bases and Demo-
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crat strongholds. While
Democrats
outnumbered
Republicans by 200,000
voters that year in Oregon,
Republican turnout hit
almost 80 percent, about 5
percent more than Demo-
crats.
But Dudley needed just
a bit more. He won Clack-
amas County, taking 83,516
votes to Kitzhaber’s 69,250.
More than 6,300 voters there
cast ballots for third-party
candidates.
In all, Clackamas counted
159,112 votes in the gover-
nor’s race, but the county
had 214,391 registered
voters, meaning almost 26
percent of them did not vote.
Oregon voters turned in
82.8 percent of ballots in
2012, the last presidential
election, and this year 50.3
percent of Oregon voters
have already cast their ballots.
Morrow County surpassed
the statewide average, with
55.7 percent return, while
Umatilla County’s return rate
was 50.1 percent.
Umatilla and Morrow
county voters combined
make up about 1.7 percent
of the state’s electorate of
about 2.5 million voters.
Republican voters in the
two counties are about 36
percent of that and nonaffi li-
ated voters make up another
32 percent.
Eligible voters can cast
a ballot right up until 8 p.m.
Tuesday, and that is the poll
that counts.
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