BALLOTS DUE TODAY: Voters to decide school board seats, McMinnville fire district merger

Updated 5/16/23

Ballots for the May election are due by 8 p.m. today, May 16. If mailed, they must be postmarked by today's date, and must arrive at the Yamhill County Elections Division within seven days.

The Clerk’s Office will issue its initial count of ballots just after 8 o’clock tonight, although additional ballots will be counted later this evening and over the coming days. Check the News-Register website, www.newsregister.com, for election results tonight.

School board positions are in play for Amity, Dayton, Yamhill-Carlton, Newberg, Sheridan, Willamina and McMinnville, and fire district board elections in Amity, the Dundee rural district, Carlton, Sheridan, West Valley and Yamhill.

There is also a proposal to dissolve the McMinnville rural fire district and merge with the McMinnville fire district, and a coinciding vote for fire board positions if the new district is approved.

Board seats for the Chehalem Parks and Recreation District are also on the ballot.

In Sheridan, the school district is asking voters to approve a $16 million bond levy. Dundee is asking voters to approve a five-year levy for fire and emergency medical services, that would charge 65 cents per $1,000 of assessed property tax value.

A Newberg measure is asking voters to approve a ban on using city resources for temporary housing projects for the homeless within 1,500 feet of a school. Locating such housing elsewhere would require a vote of the public in an even-numbered year.

There are ballot drop boxes in all cities in the county and locations are available online, at: co.yamhill.or.us/elections/election-drop-box.

In Carlton, the drop box at city hall has been moved temporarily to the parking lot of the American Legion Hall, at 158 E. Main Street.

In Amity, the drop box is located in the library parking lot, at 307 S. Trade Street.

In Dayton, Dundee, Lafayette, Sheridan and Willamina, drop boxes are located at city hall. Both Newberg and McMinnville have multiple drop box sites.