C. Oregon candidates make final push for votes

The campaign window is closing, and candidates across Central Oregon are trying to sang those final votes.

Phil Henderson is running for Deschutes County commissioner. He and his team made one of their last campaign pushes on a parkway overpass on Friday.

“We’re out here for the last couple days of the campaign, trying to just draw attention to how hard we’ve worked and I guess get some more name familiarity for the campaign,” Henderson said.

With about half the ballots in, there are still a lot of votes to fight for. Whether these tactics work or not is a matter of opinion.

“It gets my attention a lot when I drive through there, and if something catches my attention, I’m definitely right with it,” said Manuel Bivanco, a Madras resident.

A.J. Moore of Bend had a different opinion, “Doing it, like shoving it in people’s faces, I think it deters voters from actually voting,” he said.

Henderson, like many, sees the potential of the undecided voter.

“People are still making up their minds,” he said. “We were walking door to door today, and people were glad we stopped by and gave them literature, because they still haven’t made up their minds. I think all the way up until Tuesday, people are making up their minds.”

Former state representative Judy Stiegler, agreed it’s important for politicians to reinforce their message and get people thinking about them when it comes time to vote.

“There’s just a lot of people who haven’t yet voted, and who knows what could be the magic thing that changes their perspective?” she said. “They may be thinking that they know how they want to vote, but they haven’t actually sat down and actually started marking their ballots, and you never know what’s going to catch their attention.”