Clackamas and Washington County voters approve 26-91

City of Portland residents who live in Clackamas County voted in support of Measure 26-91 yesterday. The count was 58 – 52, with a whopping 18% turnout in the county. In Washington County, Measure 26-91 passed too, with the same margin – 54 to 48, on an even more pitiful 16.97% turnout overall in the county. But the turnout numbers mask the fact that there are only a few hundred Portland voters in these counties – the numbers 400 and 1100 stick in my head, although I can’t locate a source and can’t remember which has more. So of people eligible to vote in Portland’s ballot measures, one of these counties may have topped 25% turnout. Whoopee!

All four measures passed outside Multnomah County. Voters in Clackamas County gave the widest margin of support to ongoing Charter reform, while those in Washington County were almost equally partial to whacking the Civil Service chapter. Changing the governance of the Portland Development Commission passed by a much wider margin in both these counties than in Multnomah County.

Maybe for those wanting to change the form of government, the key to success is not longer campaigns with more people voting, rather even less outreach so that only a hundred or so citizens participate.