Clackamas County Vote Almost Counted, Final Tally Expected Thursday

OREGON CITY, OR — Two weeks after the May 17 primary election, Clackamas County election officials said that they expect to finish counting the ballots Thursday night. That would meet the deadline set by the state.

More than 50 people were on hand Thursday to help with the count, according to the clerk's office.

The process was delayed because around 90,000 ballots had been printed with a blurry bar code that made them impossible for the voting machines to read them, officials said. That forced the county to manually count the ballots.

Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall has been heavily criticized for a lack of preparation for having to count the ballots manually.

The county said last week that they only expected around 211 people would show over the holiday weekend to assist in the counting process. On Tuesday, Hall's office said that more than 400 people arrived to help count.

County officials said that they expect to be done finished counting and will be able to meet the deadline of June 13 to have all the votes certified.