Morrow County voters decided to not recall the three county commissioners.
Unofficial election results Monday, July 22, show Commissioners David Sykes, Jeff Wenholz and Roy Drago Jr. are keeping their positions.
According to the results on the county’s elections website, Drago received 1,431 votes against the recall to 662 for; Wenholz received 1,392 votes against to 706 for; and Sykes received 1,435 votes against to 663 for.
“The people have spoken,” Sykes said. “It shows they believe in what we’ve been doing.”
Sykes expressed, after going through the recall process he would prefer to move onto the future and work with everybody to make Morrow County better. The county board’s handling of the dispute between the Morrow County Health District and the Boardman Fire Rescue District over ambulance coverage was a central spark for the recall effort. But the commissioners also have faced accusations of a lack of transparency and criticism of not doing enough about the ongoing problem of nitrates polluting residential well water in the Lower Umatilla Basin.
Those issues also fueled the recall of two county commissioners in 2022.
Irrigon resident Stuart Dick did the leg work to recall all three county commissioners when he filed the initial paperwork with the Morrow County Clerk on Feb. 15.
Dick is one of the leaders of the Morrow County Citizens for Liberty and Justice ad hoc group and helped organize town hall meetings across the county.
To get the recall on the ballot, the group needed to collect 613 signatures per officeholder. Dick said he and the members of Morrow County Citizen for Liberty and Justice went canvassing door-to-door to about 250 homes to gather signatures.
For the petition against Sykes, the clerk’s office accepted 668 signatures out of 723. The petition against Drago Jr. had 669 valid signatures of 727, and the one against Wenholz had 686 of 743 accepted.
“So far about as many yes votes as petition signatures,” Dick said, as the results came in. “We are a republic of the people by the vote of the people. We will honor the vote and allow the people to the government they chose.”
Morrow County Clerk Bobbi Childers will certify the election — a 21-day process — just like any other election in Oregon.
