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County finishes counting � mostly By Jill Briskey It may be easier to get a load of cans and bottles through an outdoor recycling machine than it is to count ink-marked ballots in Jackson County. Put �em in and they come right back out, again and again and again, Jackson County Clerk Kathy Beckett said Saturday, after election workers counted the final 211 ballots around 2 p.m. "These were the ones that absolutely would not read," she said, adding that workers had to duplicate many of the ballots in order to get counting machines to accept them. "They gave us a lot of grief." The final count will remain unofficial until write-in ballots and supplemental ballots from the juvenile facility bond, Measure 15-15, have been tallied. The county has until Nov. 27 to certify its votes. "We still have a lot of cleanup work to do," she said. "This still goes on for a long time." With the end in sight, Beckett said one feeling overrides all others � relief. "You just have no clue what a relief it is," she said. "It�s been grueling. Not only for myself but for my hard-working staff." An unofficial total of 85,965 voters cast their ballots in Jackson County, just over 78 percent. That�s up from the 1996 presidential election, where 70.5 percent of registered voters in Jackson County residents participated. "I think that this is just incredible," Beckett said of the increase. "The vote-by-mail really made a difference." The final, unofficial tally did not alter the previously reported outcomes in the election. The tight competition for Ashland City Council ended in victory for Cate Hartzell. Hartzell beat out Planning Commissioner Chris Hearn with 4,796 (50.1 percent) votes to 4,725 (49.4 percent). Elections workers spent the bulk of their time last week enhancing ballots by going over pen marks with a graphite stamp. Referring to each as a "problem child," workers were forced to fix by hand ballots in which voters used in ink instead of pencil. The numbers left to count dropped steadily as the week progressed � 4,800 on Wednesday, 1,377 on Thursday and the final 211 left to count Saturday. The delays have spawned criticism of the election department, and Beckett hopes that a better system can be worked out before the next election to give workers a break. "It�s inhuman. I kind of liken it to going to war, because of not having any sleep, the long hours," Beckett said. "It�s just gone on and on and on. " Results of the write-in elections won�t be available until at least Wednesday, Beckett said. The final, unofficial results have been posted on the county�s Web site (http://www.co.jackson.or.us). Reach reporter Jill Briskey at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.