NEWPORT — Election Day used to be over at 8 p.m., but Lincoln County is still breathless over the Nov. 4 vote on MEASURE 21-235, the Veterans Service Office Five Year Local Option Tax.

As of Friday, Nov. 7, the ‘No’ votes shriveled from a comfortable 100-vote lead to a 15-vote margin, 6,935 No to 6,920 Yes, with 93 percent of the vote counted. Under Oregon’s leisurely mail-in election law, ballots are still arriving from around the state by snail-mail while others are being “cured” for inattentive errors, such as failing to sign. The next results will be posted Nov. 12, eight days after Election Day; the final official tally will not be released until Wednesday, Nov. 26.

Even as votes were still being counted for one electoral spectacle, the County Clerk’s office was sorting two more political dramas, including the validation of recall petitions for six Waldport city councilors and a recall campaign against one Lincoln County commissioner.

The Waldport recall targeted six councilors who voted to remove Mayor Heidie Lambert from office then sheepishly took her back after a judge’s order. After several weeks of scrutinizing the petitions, however, County Clerk Amy Southwell notified Waldport officials that the petitions “repeatedly” failed to meet legal requirements under ORS 260.567, which “prohibits the modification of the petition signature lines by other than the signer.”

As a result, the Waldport city recorder Meaghan Torres dismissed the petition effort Monday, Nov. 10, on grounds it violated state elections law. City Manager Dann Cutter added that “records of violations” would be turned over to the Oregon secretary of state “for consideration of civil and criminal prosecution.”

“People get mad, but we’re making sure the laws were followed and nothing was tampered with,” Southwell stated.

In the recall against County Commissioner Claire Hall, petition organizers say they’ve exceeded the 3,940-signature threshold required to force a special election. The petition accuses Hall of eroding transparency, mismanaging public meetings, and fostering a hostile work environment — issues that have simmered for months among staff and residents alike.

Southwell said her office is working overtime to hold a special election and validate recalls involving the verification of thousands of voters. She has a fulltime staff of 7, including former County Clerk Dana Jenkins, that grows to 25 during election seasons.

“With all the drama that’s going on in Lincoln County right now I just put my head down in the work and don’t give an opinion,” she reflected.

If the petitions to recall Hall stand, a January election would be likely.