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Awaiting final count By PETER WONG A count of absentee ballots today and Friday will settle the fate of at least seven Jackson County candidates and tax measures that hang in the balance after Tuesday's general election. Among them are county commissioner Position 1, where the Democratic challenger was leading the Republican incumbent by 100 votes, and multimillion-dollar bond issues for Central Point schools and a county juvenile detention center, both of which were leading narrowly when polling-place tallies were completed early Wednesday. "It's really frustrating when you are that close, knowing that you run a risk with the absentee ballots and that you will probably lose," a tired Jon Deason said Wednesday. "It makes you start grasping at straws of hope." Deason of Medford, a former county commissioner and Democratic nominee for Position 1, was leading Republican incumbent Jack Walker of Phoenix in final polling-place results released early Wednesday, 16,570 to 16,470. He started that count ahead of Walker, only to fall behind by 339 votes in the second count released before midnight Tuesday and then rebound in Wednesday's counts. Absentee ballots play a large role in this election because almost 22,000 have been returned and still must be counted, while polling place turnout was 36,502. Polling-place turnout was 34.3 percent of the county's 106,385 registered voters. The absentee ballots boost voter participation in Tuesday's general election to about 55 percent of voters, the lowest in the four decades that records have been kept statewide. Absentee-ballot counts were set to begin today and, under state law, must be finished by midnight Friday. County Clerk Kathy Beckett said elections workers spent Wednesday matching absentee ballots against the books that voters signed at polling places to ensure that no one voted twice. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Beckett said 21,512 absentee ballots were returned, excluding some trays of envelopes that she said would boost that total this morning. Of the county's 22,000 absentee ballots, more than half went to registered Republicans and less than a third to registered Democrats. Absentee ballots usually are cast by older and presumably more conservative voters. Deason said he is pinning his hopes to Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for him, and older people who like his record and his work with social service agencies. "I knew some organizations were going to make a huge effort to unseat me, and they did a good job of getting the vote out for my opponent," Walker said in reference to the pro-planning Jackson County Citizens League. "But that's the political game." Write-in votes are not subject to Friday's deadline and are expected to be counted by hand next week. They will prove pivotal in at least two races. One is Position 4 on the Ashland City Council, which Cate Hartzell ran for as a write-in candidate against Cameron Hanson after Ken Hagen's death Sept. 21 left the seat vacant. Hanson drew 1,590 votes in polling-place results, but almost twice as many voters (3,063) left their ballots blank. The other is the Ward 2 seat for which no one filed on the Central Point City Council. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA