Davis retains lead in Race for Wasco County DA, appears to be victor in latest count
By Tom Peterson
The Dalles, Ore., May 24, 2024 – Kara Davis maintained her lead and appears to have captured the Wasco County District Attorney seat based on final unofficial results released today at 3:15 p.m.
With 6,163 votes cast, Davis had 3100 compared to her rival Travis Marston who garnered 3052 - 48 fewer votes. There were 11 write-ins.
The race has been a nail-biter for arguably the most important position in law enforcement in Wasco County.
Davis carried a 0.78 percent lead in the final unofficial results.
Wasco County Election Clerk Lisa Gambee
An automatic recount would have come into play if the candidates were separated by 13 votes, said Wasco County Election Clerk Lisa Gambee on Friday.
“A contest has to be within 1/5th of 1% to trigger an automatic recount, she said.
100 Challenged Ballots
There remain about 100 challenged ballots in Wasco County, according to Gambee. Challenged ballots are ones found to be in error, such as not being signed.
Those voters were sent letters via the U.S. Mail and have two weeks to contact the Clerks office to correct their ballots. Deadline is June 11th.
Gambee said those voter names can be requested by both the Republican and Democrat parties. The Parties can then check the names against their party member roles. This would allow both parties to encourage their party members to correct their votes.
That could make a difference if the challenge ballots lean heavily in either party's direction. However, the statistical likelihood of that is relatively small.
Candidate Marston could request a recount, but he would be required to pay for it since it does not meet automatic recount criteria, Gambee said.
Recounts are done by hand, and it is estimated it would take several days at a cost of between $2,000 and $4,000 for staff time.
Although the position is non-partisan, it was apparent from the candidate's financial filings that the Democrats and Republicans played a role, to lesser and greater degrees, in their campaigns through contributions.
Read CCCNew’s story on campaign contributions here.
Davis, who was born and raised in The Dalles was facing Marston who grew up in Jefferson County but was able to garner much local support as some community members were unhappy about prosecutions happening under the direction of Current District Attorney Matthew Ellis.
Ellis holds the position through 2024, and the new district attorney will be sworn in January, 2025.
Election day ballot counts are available on the Wasco County website at: https://www.co.wasco.or.us/departments/clerk/election_results.php.
Statewide results are available at https://results.oregonvotes.gov/
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