Candidate wins Democratic OR House primary by 28 votes
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (AP) — A Democratic candidate for Oregon House District 38 has won his party’s primary by just 28 votes.
The OregonianLive reports that Lake Oswego City Councilor and small businessman Daniel Nguyen topped school board member Neelam Gupta, according to certified results submitted to the secretary of state’s office.
Ben Morris, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, said there would be no automatic recount in the race. State law requires an automatic recount to be conducted when the candidates are separated by less than two-tenths of a percent of the total votes cast.
An automatic recount would have been triggered if the margin between the two candidates had been 27 votes – or just one vote fewer. There were 13,690 votes cast in the race.
Morris said that Gupta could request a recount, but would be required to pay for it if it didn’t change the outcome of the race. However, Gupta indicated Monday night that she would accept the results of the race and would not request a recount.
”I am confident in the secretary of state’s audit,“ Gupta said in a statement.
The results of the race were delayed after County Clerk Sherry Hall bungled early efforts to plan a massive in-person effort to accommodate a printing error discovered two weeks before Election Day. Blurry barcodes marred tens of thousands of ballots, requiring two-person teams to hand copy voters’ choices onto new ballots.
