Two Lane County Board of Commissioners races were too close to call late Tuesday evening, with the vast majority of the votes counted.

For the West Lane commissioner seat, challenger Dawn Lesley held a slender lead over incumbent Jay Bozievich of 87 votes, or 50.21 percent to 49.56 percent.

Meanwhile, East Lane Commissioner Faye Stewart comfortably led his four challengers, but he was only 64 votes above the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a November runoff against Kevin Matthews, who secured 35 percent of the vote.

In the Springfield race, however, incumbent Sid Leiken easily bested challengers Sheri Moore and Charmaine Rehg, taking home 62 percent of the vote.

Lesley, making her first run for elected office, watched the results come in at a Democratic Party event at Wild Duck Cafe in Eugene with her family.

“We’re in the lead, which is where we wanted to be,” she said. “I’m a cautious person by nature, though. I want the (vote gap) number to be the final one.”

Of her lead, she said: “It’s a testament to people’s desire for change. … A lot of people got up and did this.”

Bozievich, who hosted a private party with around 30 supporters at Our Daily Bread Restaurant in Veneta, noted that the gap between himself and Lesley was closing as each batch of results came in throughout the evening.

“I would prefer to be up,” he said. “But my supporters were coming out late … and a lot of rural votes are coming in late. It’s a very tight race.”

Regardless of the outcome, Bozievich said he hoped the winner would work well with the loser on district issues and “not disengage.”

Lane County Elections issued its final number for the night at 10:45 p.m., but continues reviewing and counting the remaining ballots this morning. It is not clear how many of the ballots remain uncounted or otherwise in question.

The county clerk has until June 9 to certify the election results. Turnout in the election was 27 percent as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Lesley, a 48-year-old water engineer, positioned herself as a moderate candidate in the race, expressing her support for increased logging on some of Oregon’s federal forest lands, for example.

Conversely, she characterized Bozievich as “highly partisan” and having “extreme” political views.

Lesley was particularly critical of Bozievich’s dealings with former county administrator Liane Richardson, now Inkster.

Inkster was fired by the board last year for making illicit changes to her compensation, in order to to boost her take-home pay.

In campaign mailers, Lesley claimed Bozievich tried to “cover up” his knowledge of Inkster’s pay changes, and generally displayed a pattern of “closed-door decision-making” during his tenure.

Bozievich, a 56-year-old former engineer for the Eugene Water & Electric Board who was elected to the board in 2010, argued that he had an “obvious” edge in experience over Lesley, and a better understanding of “the intricacies of county government.”

Bozievich in campaign mailers stressed Lesley’s ties to liberal Eugene politicians and her appointed position on the Eugene Sustainability Commission.

Bozievich’s campaign also claimed Lesley’s background and her roster of campaign supporters were signs that she was insincere in saying she supported more timber harvests on federal lands.

Bozievich raised just under $135,000 this election cycle, with most of his funds from local timber, gravel mining and construction companies.

Lesley brought in $126,000, with contributions from labor unions and an environmental group, as well as big checks from family members and friends.

Meanwhile, Stewart, a 47-year former business owner who has served on the board since 2004, said Tuesday that avoiding a November runoff against Matthews “would be awesome.”

But his significant edge over all his challengers in Tuesday’s results “would feel like a pretty good starting position,” if a runoff did occur, he added.

“With the low turnout tonight, there’d be lots of opportunities to get more voter support.”

Matthews, a 55-year-old architecture magazine editor, said the fact that he was close to pushing a three-term incumbent to a runoff was “a real achievement”

“We’re not disappointed about anything right now,” he said. “The numbers say it’s too close to call.”

On the campaign trail, Stewart stressed the differences between his views and Matthews’ on environmental and land use issues.

Mailers sent on Stewart’s behalf referred to Matthews as an “environmental activist with an extremist single-issue agenda,” because of his opposition to logging on federal land and support for strict limits on urban growth.

Matthews criticized Stewart for supporting the timber industry, for not doing enough to stop a controversial gravel mine at Parvin Butte in rural Dexter, and for his role in Inkster’s tenure.

Matthews edged Stewart in campaign fundraising, bringing in $76,000 to Stewart’s $55,000.

Leiken, a 52-year-old former business owner and commercial lender, was first elected to the county board in 2010 after serving as Springfield mayor for a decade.

He said Tuesday that he was “very pleased” with the support he’d received from voters.

“I’ve been serving in public office in Springfield for 16 years now,” he said. “And I’m very happy to keep representing the people of Springfield and all of Lane County.”

The Springfield race attracted the least amount of interest or money of the three county board contests, with both Moore and Rehg running low-profile campaigns.

Leiken raised $20,000 to Moore’s $5,600. Rehg didn’t report any contributions.

Follow Saul on Twitter @SaulAHubbard. Email saul.hubbard@registerguard.com.