After Surge in Ballots on Election Day, Key Portland-Area Education Contests Tighten
After initially projecting a 21% turnout rate for the May 20 special election, an election day surge in ballots has exceeded county officials’ expectations and tightened a couple of key races.
How tight? A $136 million bond to fund Mt. Hood Community College was passing Thursday morning by a mere 11 votes. That’s 0.02% of the 40,265 ballots cast in that contest. (By early evening, the margin widened to a slightly more comfortable 130 votes.)
The county received more than 47,000 ballots on election day and more than 9,500 in the mail on Wednesday. Those ballots constitute about 40% of all ballots accepted thus far in the election, county officials wrote in an announcement. Accordingly, two races—one for a seat on the Portland Public Schools Board and the Mt. Hood Community College bond—are much closer than initial counts on Tuesday suggested.
The first race that’s grown much narrower is a face-off for the Zone 5 School Board seat, which covers much of Northeast Portland, including Grant and McDaniel high schools. Gary Hollands, the incumbent, suspended his reelection campaign in March and threw his support behind candidate Virginia La Forte. La Forte, a brand strategist by day and yearslong parent activist, was leading with about 55% of the vote on Tuesday.
https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2025/05/22/after-surge-in-ballots-on-election-day-key-portland-area-education-races-tighten/