Benton County Elections releases updated ballot counts

Benton County has released another round of unofficial results from the Nov. 3 General Election. The next round of results will be released by 5 p.m. on Nov. 25.

While the results released Nov. 12 are not final, they show the process as it progresses and the Elections office gets closer to the final, certified results. 

Oregon counties release early results to the Secretary of State’s Office on election night. These numbers include ballots returned in official drop boxes and received by mail through election day.

Ballots processed after election day

Not included in election night results are hundreds of ballots that were postmarked before the deadline but had not yet made it through the USPS delivery process and into the Elections office. If they’re delivered to the County within seven days of the postmark deadline, they can be counted.

Ballots that are returned in official drop boxes in other Oregon counties but are not received by Benton County until after election day are also valid.

Some ballots require special processing because the signature is missing or does not match what is on file, the paper is stained or torn, or barely-visible stray marks or smudges cause it to be skipped by the tabulation machine. These ballots must be “cured” by the voter, who is contacted by Elections staff. The voter has 21 days to do this if the ballot is to be counted.

New directive leads to early release of overvotes and undervotes

The first step in counting ballots is running them through the tabulation machine. The results of this first run are preliminary counts for each candidate and a number of overvotes and undervotes for the race.

Counties have long been required to upload early results to the Secretary of State’s Office on election night, and that office doesn’t include overvote and undervote numbers in their reporting.

In the Nov. 3 election, for the first time, the SOS required counties to post a PDF of early election-night results on their own websites as well.

Benton County’s post included larger numbers of overvotes and undervotes than the public sees in the final, certified election results. Overvote numbers are reduced as staff process ballots and redistribute votes to the intended candidates. Because of the new SOS directive, this election is likely the first time most people have seen overvote and undervote numbers prior to the manual reassignment.

According to a Ranked Choice Voting FAQ on the Benton County Elections website, an overvote occurs when a voter makes more selections in a contest than is allowed. This results in a spoiled vote — it is not counted in the final tally. 

• In a single-choice contest, an overvote occurs when a voter selects more than one candidate. 
• In a ranked-choice contest, an overvote occurs when a voter selects more than one candidate at the same ranking level. For example, they rank Candidate A as first and second choice and Candidate B as third choice, or they rank Candidates A, B and C all as first choice.
• In any contest, a pen rest or tiny stray mark that falls within a bubble on the ballot can be read by a counting machine, an extremely sensitive device, as a vote for an additional candidate.  

An undervote occurs when the number of choices selected by a voter in an election is less than the maximum number allowed for that election. 

• In a single-choice contest, an undervote occurs when the voter selects none of the available candidates or a write-in. 
• In a ranked-choice contest, an undervote occurs when the voter selects only a first choice or first and second choice when three ranked choices are allowed.

Next steps for ranked-choice races

There are two ranked-choices races on the November 3 ballot in Benton County: mayor of Corvallis and Corvallis City Council Ward 7.

If one candidate receives the majority of first-choice votes cast for that race (at least 50% +1), they can be declared the unofficial winner and the race will not go into ranked-choice voting.

In the results released on Nov. 12, neither race has a candidate with more than 50% of the votes. If that is still true after the deadline for voters to cure their ballots in cases where it is needed, ranked-choice voting will be used to tabulate the winners. That process:

1. The candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is defeated.
2. The first-choice votes for the defeated candidate are recast using the voters’ second choices. If voters have not selected any other choices, then their vote is nullified.
3. If there is now a candidate with more than 50% of the vote, that person is declared the winning candidate. If not, the process of defeating candidates and recasting votes continues until a candidate has received more than 50% of the vote or until only two candidates remain.  

The next round of results with be released by 5 p.m. on Nov. 25. The outcome of the Ranked Choice Voting process, if it is necessary, will be released in the final election results on or before Dec. 10.

For more information about the Nov. 3 General Election in Benton County visit the elections webpage.