First COVID-19 vaccines have landed | OREGON, A6
E O
AST
145th year, No. 26
REGONIAN
Tuesday, december 15, 2020
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Oregon casts electoral votes for Biden and Harris
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
saLem — Oregon took its
part monday, dec. 14, in the every
four-year ritual of casting the
state’s electoral votes for president
and vice president.
Like most states, there were no
surprises as the seven people cho-
sen as electors — all state dem-
ocratic Party officials — voted
for democrat Joe biden as presi-
dent and democrat Kamala Har-
ris as vice president. The 12th
amendment to the u.s. constitu-
tion requires separate votes for the
offices.
They did so at a meeting that
lasted less than 30 minutes in the
senate chamber at the Oregon
capitol in salem.
It might have been just like any
other meeting following the pres-
idential election. but because of
the coronavirus pandemic, the
seven electors sat far apart at indi-
vidual senators’ desks — not at
a common table — and they and
the other officials present wore
face masks.
There were no informal conver-
sations, no handshakes, no hugs.
“What was once commonplace
… has become life-threatening for
all those vulnerable populations,”
secretary of state bev clarno
said.
In addition to the pandemic this
year, clarno said in brief opening
remarks, Oregon also experienced
devastating wildfires starting
on Labor day and racial justice
protests sometimes resulting in
violence.
“all of this was on top of a 2020
general election that was rife with
misinformation leading to mis-
trust in our democracy and divi-
sion among our citizens,” she said.
“Oregon faced adversity and tur-
moil in 2020. but one thing we
were well equipped for was con-
ducting a vote-by-mail election.”
Oregon was the first state to
experiment with mail voting,
going back to 1981, and was the
first to use it for all elections start-
ing in 2000.
“many Oregonians do not
know any other way,” she said.
“While many states conducted
elections by mail this year because
of the pandemic, Oregon pro-
vided advice and counsel to our
sister states looking to follow our
pioneering spirit. We have one of
the most accessible systems in the
country.”
The tally of the Nov. 3 election
was made final on Dec. 3. Clarno
said Oregon recorded more than
2.4 million ballots, a record.
See Votes, Page A7
COVID-19
Plenty
turn out
for testing
event
yellowhawk Tribal
Health officials
tested 447 people
for cOVId-19 in a
single day
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
on and off, every light on the Johns ave-
nue display can work individually, forming
pictures and designs. To do that, dircksen
and family members who helped out had
to install every bulb in its place by hand,
including the hundreds that work together
to create a sort of movie screen on the
garage door.
They then select songs, purchase the
rights to use them, choreograph the show
for that song and go through a detailed
computer programming process to make it
happen.
“The computer side is very challenging,”
dircksen said.
He said he gets help from a community
of christmas light enthusiasts around the
world who support each other by answer-
ing questions, offering advice and promot-
ing videos of each other’s work. The pro-
gram dircksen is using, xLights, is free and
available online.
mIssION — around midday
on Thursday, dec. 3, more than 25
vehicles sat in front of Wildhorse
resort & casino, waiting to receive
a free cOVId-19 test supplied by
yellowhawk Tribal Health center
and the Oregon Health authority.
cars approached a large white
tent where health officials, donning
light-blue protective gear, face
masks and gloves, handed passen-
gers a kit with a cotton swab and
instructions for self-testing. Par-
ticipants were advised to take the
brush, swab an inch into their nos-
tril five times, and then insert the
swab into a testing reagent before
handing it back to a health official.
After about six hours, officials
had successfully tested 447 peo-
ple, most of whom were Wildhorse
staff and members of the confeder-
ated Tribes of the umatilla Indian
reservation. results came back
two days later and showed seven
positive tests, according to carrie
sampson-samuels, the community
wellness director for yellowhawk
Tribal Health center.
“I’m really proud of our test-
ing efforts we’ve been able to pull
together,” sampson-samuels said,
highlighting that efforts like this
event have led to relatively low
infection rates in the community
when compared to tribal commu-
nities elsewhere in the country,
which have been hit dispropor-
tionately hard by the pandemic due
See Lights, Page A7
See Testing, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Craig Dircksen, left, Emily Bonner, center, and Lori Smith pose for a portrait in the front yard of their Hermiston home on Thursday, Dec.
10, 2020.
Light up the night
Hermiston family
decks their house
in musically
synchronized
christmas lights
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
H
ermIsTON — at night, craig
dircksen and Lori smith’s house
is hard to miss.
Their home and yard are cov-
ered in tens of thousands of lights, all work-
ing in sync with a musical concert more
than an hour long. during one song, a giant
spider man dances on a 28-foot-tall metal
christmas tree. during another, a wave of
pink crosses the house at the mention of
santa claus bringing a barbie.
“I’m one of those ‘go big or go home’
people, and I’m already home so I might as
well go big,” dircksen said.
The songs are broadcast over the radio
frequency 88.1 Fm and the light display
runs from 5:30-9 p.m. nightly at 790 W.
Johns ave. in Hermiston. It brings a steady
stream of people parking along the street or
in the adjacent parking lot of desert View
elementary school to watch and listen from
their vehicles.
The home has featured a musical light
display for three years now, but this year
is bigger and more elaborate. dircksen
said he has been working on it since Janu-
ary, spending hours creating custom metal
props and programming the songs.
“I like being different, and this is some-
thing you can’t just go downtown and buy,”
he said.
While some musical light displays
merely cause entire strands of light to blink
NWs expects mild snowfall over the next month
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — With less than
a week until the official start to win-
ter, the weather is just starting to
indicate a change in seasons.
Light snowfall fell in the region
sunday, dec. 13. according to
National Weather service meteo-
rologist matt callihan, Pendleton
saw 0.4 inches, while further east in
meacham 0.21 inches of snow was
recorded. most other areas in the
region saw trace amounts of snow, if
they saw any at all.
callihan said the recent weather
system continues the recent trend
of higher than normal precipita-
tion paired with higher than normal
temperatures. For eastern Oregon,
that’s meant more rain and less snow
at lower elevations.
callihan said forecasters were
initially anticipating freezing rain
rather than snow on dec. 13.
more storms are projected for
later in the week going into the
weekend, but callihan said snow is
more likely in the region’s higher
elevations rather than lower lying
areas like Pendleton and Hermiston.
callihan said this trend of higher
precipitation and higher tempera-
tures is expected to continue for the
next month, but that doesn’t mean
it can’t change. He added that most
of the storms that have swept across
eastern Oregon have originated
from the Pacific Ocean, which leads
to the milder temperatures.
but should a storm come from
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
See Snow, Page A7
Snow blankets sections of Old Emigrant Road near the Deadman Pass Rest
Area on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.