King expands lead over Berschauer in Thursday update; Morris looks to be Mac's next mayor

Update, 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7

David “Bubba” King appears to be on his way to denying incumbent Lindsay Berschauer a second term in Position 2 on the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners. 

King, of Newberg, is seeing an expanding lead over Berschauer, of McMinnville, as the count continues in what has been a tight race. The county clerk’s office posted updated results at 8 p.m. Thursday.

King’s lead expanded to 1,074 votes, with 26,568 to Berschauer’s 25,494, a total of 52,062 ballots counted. The challenger now enjoys a 50.97% to 48.91% margin, or 2.06 percentage points.

On election night, the margin was sliver-thin at barely over a point but the lead has nearly doubled with the running of thousands of more ballots on Thursday.

King’s edge stood at just under 500 votes on election night. On Wednesday, after about 40,000 votes had been counted, King had 1.5 percentage point lead.

In the May Primary, King had narrowly edged Berschauer, but not enough to avoid a runoff.

As of Thursday night, the clerk's website stated that 58 of 58 precincts reported. Remaining to be counted are questioned ballots and those that were postmarked by election day but are still arriving via the mail.

Notably, there is one other close race in the county, that of the city of Yamhill mayor. Thursday’s tabulation saw Shea Corrigan’s margin double over Chuck Mitchell, his closest challenger. Corrigan now has 298 votes, or 44.02%, to 275 for Mitchell, or 40.62%. A day ago, Corrigan had an 11-vote lead. Brian Denman stands at 97 votes, or 14.33%  

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The votes are in, mostly.

Results are clear among almost all races in the Nov. 5 General Election, from president on down the ballot to local positions.

The one exception is the Yamhill County Commission, Position 2 contest. David “Bubba” King holds a lead of 21,880 to 21,228 over Lindsay Berschauer, the incumbent, as of the latest results Wednesday night; with 43,153 ballots counted in that race, representing 59.07% of registered voters. That equates to a 50.7% to 49.19% advantage for the challenger.

Turnout in Yamhill County was 65% of registered voters, according to the clerk’s office. Clerk Keri Hinton said 1,400 “unaccepted ballots” require verification of signatures before they can be counted.

Meanwhile, Kim Morris holds a strong lead of 7,215 votes (54.63%) to 5,961 (45.14%) over incumbent Remy Drabkin for McMinnville mayor.

Republican Bruce Starr is leading Democrat Scott Hooper 56.23% to 34.08% for 12th District state senator. 

In the one contested McMinnville City Council race, Scott Cunningham has a wide lead over Chaz Gibbins, a 58.32% to 41.31% margin, as the McMinnville restauranteur is on his way to filling the council seat being vacated by Kellie Menke.

Yamhill County gave a solid edge to former -- and soon to be again -- President Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, with the Republican nominee leading Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat nominee, 23,574 to 20,779 — 51.49 to 45.39%.

According to the Oregon Secretary of State’s website, Harris was leading statewide 54.53% to 42.08%.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, the state was reporting that 56% of ballots had been counted.

In the secretary of state race, Democrat Tobias Read was defeating Republican Dennis Linthicum statewide by a 53.8 to 43.2% margin.

In the attorney general race, the state website had Democrat Dan Rayfield ahead of Republican Will Lathrop by 53.85% to 42.99%.

U.S. House District Rep. Andrea Salinas has been declared winner over Republican challenger Mike Erickson, 130,102 (53.44%) to 113,004 (46.42). In Yamhill County, voters are backing Erickson over the Democrat incumbent, 24,236 to 20,329, a 54.34% to 45.58% margin.

Incumbents in the Oregon House races affecting Yamhill County held strong leads on their challengers. In District 23, Anna Scharf, the Amity Republican, held her 62.54% to 37.35% margin over Kriss Wright.

In District 24, Lucetta Elmer, a McMinnville Republican, is leading Democrat Lisa Pool, also of McMinnville, maintaining a 59.65% to 40.23% margin.

In Yamhill, the only other city in the county with a contested mayoral race, Shea Corrigan is ahead of Chuck Mitchell by 11 votes, 236 to 335, with Brian Denman getting 80 votes, and four write-in votes.

It’s a tight three-way race for Yamhill City Council, with Chris Featherston leading at 291 (37.89%) and Tim Askey at 225 (29.3%) and Patty Pairan 235 (30.6%).

On the Chemeketa Community College bond measure, districtwide voters were saying no, 60.32% to 39.68% -- districtwide the measure is falling 58.18% to 41.82%.