Call For Recount For City Of Cannon Beach Charter Amendment Measures (Photo) -07/01/25

The Clatsop County Clerk and Elections Office have been notified by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division that a demand for a recount of votes has been filed by Kathryn Bestgen for the May 20, 2025 election.

 

The recount specifically concerns two charter amendment measures voted on by residents of Cannon Beach.

• Measure 04-235, requiring voter approval to incur debt
• Measure 04-236, clarifying voter approval for issuance of debt

 

The recount will begin at 9 a.m. on July 10, 2025 at the Judge Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial Street in Astoria.

 

Clatsop County voters with questions are encouraged to contact the County Clerk at 503-325-8511 or visit www.clatsopcounty.gov/elections.

Ensuring Accuracy: Clatsop County Confirms Correct Ballot Outcomes In Cannon Beach (Photo) -06/18/25

(Astoria, OR) — Clatsop County Elections has confirmed that an administrative error by the Oregon Elections Division mistakenly reversed the unofficial election results for two Cannon Beach charter amendment measures: Measure 04-235 and Measure 04-236.

 

The issue was discovered on Monday, June 16, during the County’s official election certification process. The vote counts were not affected, and the certified results are correct. The will of the voters remains unchanged.

 

According to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, the reversal occurred due to a manual data entry error. Two internal tracking numbers used for ballot measures were entered incorrectly, causing the results for the two measures to be mislabeled on the state’s elections website.

 

What Are the Measures?

 

• Measure 04-235: City of Cannon Beach Charter Amendment Requiring Voter Approval to Incur Debt
  This citizen-initiated measure proposed requiring a public vote for any nonemergency city debt exceeding 50% of the previous year's government activity revenues.
• Measure 04-236: City of Cannon Beach Charter Amendment Clarifying Voter Approval for Issuance of Debt
  Introduced by the city, this measure aimed to clarify existing charter language regarding voter approval for issuing debt.

 

What Happened?

 

While the vote totals were accurate, the results on the SOS website were incorrectly labeled online. Measure 04-235 was shown as 04-236 and vice versa. The discrepancy was identified before certification as part of Clatsop County’s routine election verification procedures and promptly reported to the state.

 

Clatsop County Clerk Tracie Krevanko emphasized the reliability of the County’s local reporting system.

 

“The results were correctly posted from Clatsop County Elections on election night,” Krevanko said. “It was during our thorough certification process that we noticed the discrepancy between our results and how they appeared on the state’s website. That’s exactly why these checks and balances are in place—to catch and correct any administrative issues before results are finalized.”

 

The Oregon Elections Division has corrected the online listings for the two measures, and a full review confirmed that no other unofficial election results were impacted by similar errors.

 

“The Secretary of State’s office takes full responsibility for the error that caused the results for two ballot measures in Cannon Beach to be flipped in the unofficial election night reporting website. We conducted a full review of the unofficial results for every other race in the state and confirmed this was an isolated incident. We are adding additional controls to prevent errors like this from happening again because we know Oregonians are counting on us to get this right,” said Deputy Oregon Secretary of State Michael Kaplan.

 

Key Points:

• Vote counts were not affected.
• Certified election results accurately reflect voter intent.
• Measure 04-235 failed; Measure 04-236 passed.
• The discrepancy involved labeling only, not vote totals.
• Additional safeguards are now in place to prevent similar issues.

 

Clatsop County voters with questions are encouraged to contact the County Clerk at (503) 325-8511 or visit www.clatsopcounty.gov/elections.

 

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