Elections Officials Expect Between 20 to 30 Percent Voter Turnout For Salem Special Annexation Election

As of Friday, voter turnout for the special election is just over 15 percent. Salem-News.com Will Have Complete Election Results Tuesday Night.

Salem Oregon City Hall Photo By: Tim King

(SALEM) - Ballots are slowly trickling in at the Marion County Elections Division for Tuesday’s Salem special annexation election. Voters are being asked to approve 35 city council-initiated annexations throughout the city. Marion County Election Supervisor Sharon Ricks says she is expecting a 30 percent voter turnout, while Marion County Elections Clerk Bill Burgess expects only a 20 percent turnout. There are 55,675 registered active voters in Marion County. As of Friday, 8,595 ballots have made their way to the elections division. Burgess says the county has never had an exclusive annexation election with so many measures. “I’m unsure as to if many voters would be willing to work through all these measures, especially coinciding with the end of summer, beginning of the school year and so many families getting into a new routine” Burgess said. “Maybe our unfortunate and incorrect tax verbiage on the outer envelope, resultant news coverage, our press releases and mailing post cards to Salem voters stimulated a greater turnout.” “We have received a lot of complements from voters on the helpfulness of the Marion County Voter's Pamphlet in dealing with these annexation measures” Burgess said. There will be 32 more city annexation measures on the various types of ballots sent to Salem residents for the upcoming November General election. County-wide the elections division will be sending 87 different ballot styles, determined by the voter's specific residential address. “We have not calculated the number of different ballot styles necessary within the City of Salem yet.” “Each Salem voter's cover envelope will contain the verbiage "Contains Vote On Proposed Tax Increase" as required by Oregon law due to concurrent tax measures on their ballots. “Most cover envelopes county-wide will also have the 'Proposed Tax Increase' statement.” Burgess said. Voters with any questions or concerns should contact Marion County Elections at (503) 588-5041.