Voters in Cannon Beach weighed ballot measures related to debt-financed city projects. Shanna Madison/The Astorian

Following certification, Clatsop County Elections officials have confirmed that an “administrative error” by the Oregon Elections Division caused the unofficial results for two recent ballot measures in Cannon Beach to be reversed. 

The ballot measures, Measure 04-235 and Measure 04-236, focused on voter approval for incurring debt. As final votes came in, it appeared that the former was narrowly passing — but in reality, officials say, the opposite was true. 

Measure 04-235, a citizen-initiated measure introduced by residents Robin Risley, Samuel Block and Allen Barber, would have required a public vote on all non-emergency debts, bonds or financing agreements exceeding 50% of government activity revenues from the past year. That would have taken decision-making power from the city council and given voters more say on spending for city projects.

Measure 04-236, a countermeasure introduced by the city, sought to clarify existing charter language about when the city council may approve debt without voter approval. The goal was to “safeguard the City’s ability to fund municipal projects without increased costs and delays,” according to the measure summary.

According to a press release from Clatsop County Elections, vote counts on the two measures were incorrectly labeled on the Oregon Secretary of State’s website, with Measure 04-235 labeled as Measure 04-236 and vice-versa. The discrepancy was caught during the county’s election certification process on Monday and reported to the state. 

The official final results show that Measure 04-236 — the measure introduced by the city — passed. 

“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,” Deputy Oregon Secretary of State Michael Kaplan said in a statement. “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.”

County elections officials emphasized that vote counts were not affected, and the discrepancy only involved labels, not vote totals. 

“The results were correctly posted from Clatsop County Elections on election night,” Clatsop County Clerk Tracie Krevanko said in the release. “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.”

When the county posts updated election results following election night, it checks the Secretary of State’s website to ensure the total number of votes has been updated. However, it doesn’t currently check individual races until beginning the election certification process. 

Moving forward, Krevanko told The Astorian the county will begin comparing each race’s result on the Secretary of State’s website with its tabulator results after every update to ensure that any potential discrepancies can be addressed right away. The county will also begin posting a PDF of unofficial results from its tabulator to the county website on election night and with each update.

Check back on this story, we will continue to update as details develop.