Voters hit the ballot box in Jackson County special election

Jackson County, OR — Jackson County voters headed to the ballot box on Tuesday to vote on a measure that would make the county assessor position an appointed one, rather than an elected one.

The measure comes after the Jackson County assessor erred in calculating property tax for homes that were destroyed in the Almeda Fire, costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars and requiring it to ask for money back from devastated families.

County resident Paul Peterson voted in favor of making the position appointed.

"This is one of those offices that cant be a Democrat-Republican football. You need skilled, qualified people in that position. Not people that can confuse the people that vote," he said.

Fellow county resident Jonathan Hanken also voted in favor of changing the nature of the position, although for a different reason.

"First and foremost, to cut down on the signs. All of the wasted paper and wood to make those signs. That's a lot of paper and a lot of wood, so for me it was about conservation," Hanken said.

Neither Peterson nor Hanken were affected by the property tax error themselves.

If the ballot measure passes, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners would have the power to hire and fire the county assessor based on their own criteria.

"We're so polarized in this country, so terribly polarized. It can't be that the guy deciding who pays what taxes decides because they are Democrat or Republican. It can't be, it has to be neutral," Peterson said.

Also on the ballot in the city of Shady Cove is an open City Council position. Ballot stations continue to be open until 8 p.m. Tuesday, although it is too late to vote by mail.

Jackson County Elections Clerk Chris Walker is helming the election certification process. She says the nature of the ballot measure - having an election to determine whether or not to get rid of an elected office - is nothing unusual.

"Its not interesting or strange, we don’t get into the politics of that. We are here solely to conduct the election in a nonpartisan fashion because we represent the voice and will of all of our voters," she said.

Walker is thankful it's a much quieter election year than 2020, but that doesn't mean the process changes. Turnout was at roughly 20% of eligible voters as of Tuesday morning, with that number expected to continue to rise throughout the day.

"In November 2020, there was a lot of misinformation and a lot of bad information. A lot of fear from people especially coming from the national level. We saw really heavy early votes during that election. Now we've gone back to the pattern that we had before," she said.

Election observers continue to be present at all steps of the certification process in Jackson County to ensure transparency and accountability. The voters who dropped off their ballot at the drop box throughout Tuesday morning were universally excited to take part in the political process, and do their civic duty.

"You guys get it wrong, you should call it democracy day. not election day. It's one of our few chances at getting to tell them what we want. All the rest of the time they tell us what they want," Peterson said.