One of the most contentious and hard fought battles of the 2014 midterm elections happened in Oregon. Measure 92 was a ballot proposal in Oregon that would have made the labeling of products made with genetically engineered crops.
If you followed my posts on Election Day (and the day after), it was reported that Measure 92 had failed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of Measure 92.
To be more precise, it was predicted that Measure 92 would fail the day after the election. Much like other races, which can be called prior to all the votes being counted, those covering the election projected that the ballot proposal failed. (Anyone remember 2000…?)
The final vote count for Measure 92 was:
Yes votes: 752,664/49.97 percent.
No votes: 753,473/50.03 percent.
(Source: KPTV)
Oregon conducts elections entirely by mail. Elections officials verify ballots by matching a signature on the envelope to the one on file with a voter’s registration card.
In every election, thousands of ballots end up not being counted, usually because of problems with the signature. Some voters forget to sign, or their signature evolves over time so it doesn’t match the one on file. In the past, county elections officials have sent letters to affected voters informing them that their ballot wasn’t counted but they could visit the elections office in person to correct the deficiency.
Starting this year, the list of “challenged ballots” was released publicly, allowing the campaigns to nudge voters to take action if they believe they might be supporters.
The labeling proponents aggressively used the list to make sure voters they believed were likely supportive had their votes counted.
Sooo….the proponents may not have won in the first go around, but they definitely tried to “correct” their error before the recount.
Analysts are consider it “unlikely” that there will be enough votes to pass Measure 92 on the recount, but we’ll have to wait and see. The recount should start this week.
