Lane County Primary Election: What to know to register, vote, learn about candidates on ballot
There's not a presidential election in 2022, but voters still have plenty to turn out for, from seats in city hall to the Oregon Capitol to Congress.
On May 17, voters across Lane County will have a chance to weigh in on the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, Oregon gubernatorial and legislative races, Board of County Commissioners seats and judicial seats.
In some cases, voters will select party nominees. In others, they may narrow the field before the November election.
People across Springfield and in some wards in Eugene will vote on City Council seats. Other cities in Lane County will only hold a general election for nonpartisan council and mayor spots.
Here's what you need to know about registering, voting, and what will be on the primary ballot.
Check your voter registration
People can check their voter registration status at the state's My Vote page, bit.ly/or-check-voter-reg. My Vote also lets people quickly update their registration if they've moved, had a name change or want to update their political affiliation.
Oregon has closed primaries, meaning if you want to vote on a party nomination, you need to identify as part of that political party. People who are unaffiliated with any political party still can vote on nonpartisan seats.
County and city seats in Lane County are nonpartisan, meaning the primary is meant to narrow the field rather than give someone the party nomination. If any candidate gets more than 50% of the vote in May, they’ll win outright; otherwise, the two who get the most votes will face voters in the November general election.
Other than the Commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, state-level seats are partisan. All federal seats on the ballot are partisan.
People who find they aren't already registered to vote can register through My Vote or can download and fill out the voter registration form available at sos.oregon.gov/elections/Documents/SEL500.pdf then mail it to or drop it off at the county elections office at 275 W. 10th Ave. in Eugene. People also can register in person at the county elections office.
Voters should have received notification cards about their registration within the past week. The cards include the voter’s precinct, senate and representative district based on the recent redistricting process.
“Voter notification cards are a required part of the redistricting process,” Lane County Clerk Cheryl Betschart said in a statement. “The cards give every Lane County voter the opportunity to ensure that voter registration records are up to date and accurately reflect their current residence, mailing address and party affiliation. We also encourage voters to check the status of their registration at oregonvotes.gov.”
New county commissioner districts will go into effect for the 2023 election cycle, and will not be reflected on the voter notification.
The deadline to register to vote is 11:59 p.m. April 26.
Seats on the ballot and who's running
There are multiple county and city seats up for election this year. Here they are broken down by county-level, city-level and state and federal seats.
Lane County
Board of Commissioners
Three seats on the Board of Commissioners are up for election.
District 1, which covers the western portion of the county, is open after Commissioner Jay Bozievich announced he would be retiring at the end of his term on Jan. 3, 2023, instead of running for re-election.
Five people have filed to run for the open seat:
Ryan Ceniga, a Eugene Water & Electric Board employee who serves on the Junction City School Board
Terry Duman, a small business owner from Florence
Misty Fox, a private security officer
Rod Graves, a former EMT who's served on boards for the Santa Clara Fire District and the Santa Clara Water District
Dawn Lesley, an environmental engineer who serves as vice-chair of the Lane County Budget Committee and lives in Santa Clara. She ran for the seat in 2014.
District 2 covers Springfield. Commissioner Joe Berney has filed for reelection to District 2. He's challenged by David Loveall. Jeremy Sherer had filed but withdrew to make way for "a better candidate."
District 5 covers the eastern portion of the county. Commissioner Heather Buch has filed for reelection to District 5. She's challenged by Kyle Blain, a city councilor in Coburg.
Lane County Assessor, courts
Two people are running for assessor — Faith Bowlsby and Mary Vuksich-Shafer, both of whom work in the assessor's office. Michael Cowles was running for re-election but withdrew for personal reasons.
There also are four Circuit Court spots on the ballot, and current Circuit Court judges are seeking those seats with no challengers. Justice of the Peace Richard Brissenden also is seeking reelection.
Eugene
City Council, EWEB
There are four City Council wards and two Eugene Water & Electric Board seats on the ballot:
City Council Ward 3, on the eastern part of the city from Franklin Boulevard to the Amazon neighborhood area
City Council Ward 4, on the northeast side and east of Oakway Road
City Council Ward 5, on the northeast side between the river and Oakway Road
City Council Ward 6, north of Royal Avenue and west of State Highway 99
EWEB Wards 4 and 5
EWEB at-large
Seven people have filed for those seats:
Alan Zelenka for reelection to City Council Ward 3
Jennifer Solomon for City Council Ward 4. Solomon is a former city councilor for Ward 6.
Jennifer Yeh for reelection to City Council Ward 4
Mike Clark for reelection to City Council Ward 5
Greg Evans for reelection to City Council Ward 6
John Brown for reelection to EWEB Commissioner Wards 4 and 5
Mindy Schlossberg for reelection to EWEB Commissioner at-large
Springfield
City Council
There are three City Council wards on the ballot:
Ward 1, representing the northwest portion of the city including the Gateway area
Ward 2, representing the western portion of the city south of State Highway 126
Ward 5, representing the city between 42nd and 55th streets and part of the city just east of Straub Parkway lining the Thurston Hills Natural Area
Four people have filed for those seats:
Michelle Webber for Ward 1. Webber currently sits on the Lane Transit District Board of Directors
Steve Moe for reelection to City Council Ward 2
Victoria Doyle for Ward 5
Mark Molina for City Council Ward 5. Molina currently sits on the Springfield Utility Board.
State Senate
Three of the four State Senate districts that represent part of Lane County are on the ballot in 2022:
District 4: Floyd Prozanski, a Democrat from Eugene, has filed for reelection
District 6: Cedric Hayden, a Republican from Lane County currently representing Oregon House District 7, and Ashley Pelton, a Democrat from Cottage Grove, have filed for the seat
District 7: James Manning Jr., a Democrat from Eugene, has filed for reelection. Raquel Ivie, an auto broker from Eugene, is running for the Republican nomination
State House
There are seven State House districts that represent part of Lane County, and they're all on the ballot in 2022:
District 7: John Lively, a Democrat from Springfield, has filed to continue representing the city in District 7 (he represented District 12 until redistricting changed the boundaries). Two Republicans are seeking the nomination to challenge him − Raiph Huber and Alan Stout, both of whom live in Springfield
District 8: Paul Holvey, a Democrat from Eugene, has filed for reelection to District 8. Michael Moore, a Eugene resident, is seeking the Republican nomination.
District 9: Boomer Wright, a Republican from Douglas County, has filed for reelection to District 9.
District 11: Five Linn County residents have filed to run for District 11 after redistricting drew the current representative out of the district. Two are seeking the Democratic nomination: Nina Brenner and Mary Cooke. Three are seeking the Republican nomination: State Representative Jami Cate, who previously has represented District 17, Tyler Collins and Heather Dillon
District 12: Five people have filed to run for District 12. Michelle Emmons, an Oakridge resident who works for Willamette Riverkeeper, is seeking the Democratic nomination. Four people are seeking the Republican nomination: Charlie Conrad, the operations supervisor at Lane Events Center; Nicole De Graff, a small business owner from Springfield; Jeff Gowing, who's serving as mayor of Cottage Grove; and Bill Ledford, a Eugene resident
District 13: Nancy Nathanson, a Democrat, has filed for reelection to District 13. Timothy Sutherland, a Eugene resident, is seeking the Republican nomination.
District 14: Julie Fahey, a Democrat, has filed for reelection to District 14. Caleb Clark, who currently serves on the board for Bethel School District, and Stan Stubblefield, who owns De Casa Fine Food, are running for the Republican nomination.
Oregon governor
More than 30 people have filed to run for governor and been determined eligible.
Republican candidates
Nearly 20 are seeking the Republican nomination.
Raymond Baldwin, from Clackamas County
Bridget Barton, from Clackamas County
Court Boice, who serves on the Curry County Board of Commissioners
David Burch, from Marion County
Reed Christensen, from Washington County
Christine Drazan, who's currently serving as a state representative for part of Clackamas County and is the House minority leader
Jessica Gomez, from Jackson County
Nick Hess, from Washington County
Tim McCloud, from Marion County
Kerry McQuisten, the current mayor of Baker City in Baker County
Brandon Merritt, from Deschutes County
Bud Pierce, from Polk County
John Presco, from Springfield
Stan Pulliam, the current mayor of Sandy in Clackamas County
Amber Richardson, from Jackson County
Bill Sizemore, from Deschutes County
Stefan Strek, from Eugene
Marc Thielman, who resigned as superintendent of the Alsea School District to run for governor
Bob Tiernan, a former state representative from Clackamas County
Democratic candidates
More than a dozen are seeking the Democratic nomination:
David Beem, from Marion County
Julian Bell, from Jackson County
Wilson Bright, from Multnomah County
George Carrillo, from Washington County
Michael Cross, from Marion County
Ifeanyichukwu Diru, from Washington County
Peter Hall, a city councilor for Haines in Baker County
Tina Kotek, who's served as a state representative for part of Multnomah County since 2007 and House Speaker since 2013; she resigned the posts to run
Dave Lavinsky, from Deschutes County
Keisha Lanell Merchant, from Benton County
Tobias Read, a Washington County resident who's served as state treasurer since 2017
Patrick E. Starnes, from Linn County
John Sweeney, from Multnomah County
Michael Trimble, from Multnomah County
Genevieve Wilson, from Multnomah County
Peter Winter, from Clackamas County
BOLI Commissioner
Seven people have filed to lead the state agency:
Aaron Baca, a small business owner from Washington County
Brent Barker, a banker and small business owner from Washington County
Cheri Helt, a business owner from Deschutes County
Chris Henry, a union linehaul truck driver from Clackamas County
Casey M. Kulla, a Yamhill County commissioner who was running for governor until recently
Robert Neuman, a Baker County resident who describes himself as a general laborer
Christina Stephenson, a civil rights attorney and small business owner from Washington County
4th Congressional District
There's the potential for a wide field in the race for Oregon's 4th Congressional District after Peter DeFazio announced he wouldn't seek reelection.
Read more: After more than three decades in office, Oregon U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio will not seek reelection
Various people have filed with the state for the open seat.
Alek Skarlatos, a veteran from Douglas County who's known for being part of a group that stopped a gunman on a Paris-bound train travelling from Amsterdam via Brussels in August 2015, is running for the Republican nomination.
Seven people are running for the Democratic nomination:
Sami Al-Abdrabbuh, a Benton County resident who's serving on the Corvallis 509J School Board
Doyle Canning, a Eugene resident who ran against DeFazio in 2020.
Valerie Hoyle, the current Oregon Commissioner of Labor & Industries
Andrew Kalloch, a Eugene resident who's on leave from his job as an Airbnb lobbyist
Steven Laible, a veteran and children's author from Josephine County
John Selker, an Oregon State University professor
G. Tommy Smith, a personal banker from Eugene
U.S. Senate
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, is seeking reelection.
He faces two primary challengers:
William E. Barlow III, from Yamhill County
Brent Thompson, from Curry County
More than half a dozen Republicans are seeking to get the party nomination to run in November:
Jason Beebe, the current mayor of Prineville in Crook County
Chris Christensen, a Washington County resident who ran for the First Congressional District in 2020
Robert M. Fleming, from Multnomah County
Darin Harbick, a business owner from Lane County whose name people might recognize from Harbick's Country Inn
Sam Palmer, a commissioner in Grant County
Joe Rae Perkins, from Linn County
Ibra A Taher, a Eugene resident who describes himself as a self-employed philosophy teacher
Ballot measures
There's still some time for people to file ballot measures with a deadline of Thursday, March 17.
So far, all the people can vote on during the primary are local:
Junction City Rural Fire Protection District: Whether to renew a five-year local option tax of 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed value for operations
Coburg Rural Fire District: Whether to renew a five-year local option tax of 22 cents per $1,000 of assessed value
Dexter Rural Fire Protection District: Whether to institute a five-year local option tax of $1 per $1,000 of assessed value to support day-to-day operations, training, equipment replacement and more. This could raise property taxes by more than 3%
What district are you voting in?
All Lane County residents vote for U.S. Senate, 4th Congressional District and for statewide offices like governor and BOLI Commissioner.
State legislators are elected by district. To see which district you live in, go to oregonlegislature.gov/findyourlegislator/leg-districts.html, which is valid through 2022 and has links to redistricting information.
County commissioners also are elected by district. Find your district at lcmaps.lanecounty.org/LaneCountyMaps/CommissionerSearchApp/index.html. This search also shows the state legislators by name and, in some cases, city officials that represent someone by address.
Eugene residents can find their councilor at eugene-or.gov/532/Find-Your-Ward.
Springfield councilors are the main point of contact within their ward, but they're elected citywide.
Getting a ballot and voting
Active registered voters will receive an officials ballot in the mail to complete and return. Ballots are being mailed out April 28.
People can mail ballots back or drop them off at an official drop box, which open April 28. Drop box locations will be available at sos.oregon.gov/voting/Pages/drop-box-locator.aspx 20 days before the election.
Ballots must be received or mailed with a valid post mark by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
There's information about absentee voting and for military and overseas voters available at lanecounty.org/elections.
Get more information on elections
Oregon residents are expected to receive pamphlets with information on ballot measures and candidate two to three weeks before the election to give them time to research what's on the ballot.
There's also more information on voting and elections available on various webpages:
Lane County: lanecounty.org/elections
Eugene: eugene-or.gov/518/Elections
Springfield: springfield-or.gov/city/city-recorder-elections/
Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: What Lane County residents need to know about the May 17 primary
