Tuesday was a special election day in Oregon, so I asked pollster John Horvick, of DHM Research, for his impressions of the results — I share some of the election updates in the news section above. But among the results, voters soundly rejected (82% to 18%) the Multnomah County Measure 26-238 that would have funded tenant attorneys in eviction court with a tax on capital gains — a kind of tax that’s never been imposed by any county in the U.S.
It’s always an interesting night when Portland voters reject a tax, or at least that's the stereotype. What happened to the measure?
“It is different from most other money measures that have institutional or elected official backing, and then it's a whole new mechanism. This came from a group of Democratic Socialists of America.”
Has Oregon moved to being more anti-tax?
“I don't see anything in these results to suggest a backlash. For most places and most measures, voters said yes to either maintaining or increasing their taxes to fund the services that they value — at the same rate that we've seen in recent elections.”
How’s turnout?
“Twenty-three to 24% probably is where we end up in Multnomah County. On the one hand, that's typical for May special elections. On the other hand, it's not a particularly effective way to engage people in important decisions about our elected leaders, and how we fund government when turnout is so low.
“The highest turnout right now [in the state] is Wallowa County. It's well over 50%. It's pretty clear that turnout is high because it had the “move the Idaho border” measure on the ballot that got people energized. And it's close — 21 votes as of this morning, with the yes side winning.”
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