Marion and Polk counties have counted tens of thousands of ballots since election night, but little has changed in Salem-area races, where voters sent incumbents back to the state Legislature and local sheriff’s offices. Just one Salem-area race remains too close to call. In House District 22, Rep. Tracy Cramer, a Gervais Republican, is narrowly leading challenger Lesly Muñoz, a Democrat and union consultant, in her bid for a second term. The Oregonian/OregonLive has called the House District 21 race for Rep. Kevin Mannix, a Republican representing north Salem and Keizer who has made tough-on-crime policies and reforming Oregon’s drug decriminalization measure a focus of his career.  He successfully fended off a challenge from Salem City Councilor Virginia Stapleton, a Democrat, who campaigned on preserving access to abortion and reforming the state’s property tax system to allow local governments to collect higher taxes to stave off budget cuts. The race was among the most expensive and contentious in Oregon, with Mannix raising more than $1 million to Stapleton’s $399,000. Rep. Paul Evans, a Monmouth Democrat, easily won a sixth term representing House District 20, which includes West Salem, Independence and Monmouth. He faced a challenge from Kevin Chambers, a water well driller and former Polk County Republican Party chair. And in south Salem, Rep. Tom Andersen, a Democrat, won a second term against insurance franchise owner David Brown. Republican state representatives whose districts cover rural portions of Marion and Polk counties also won reelection easily: Ed Diehl in House District 17, Rick Lewis in House District 18 and Anna Scharf in House District 23. Sen. Fred Girod, a Stayton Republican representing Senate District 9, which covers most of rural Marion County, was also reelected. Marion County Sheriff Nick Hunter easily won his race against Deputy Stacy Rejaian. The Marion County Board of Commissioners appointed him sheriff in 2023. In Polk County, Sheriff Mark Garton won reelection, and Treasurer Steve Milligan won a second term. A contested race for Marion County Circuit Court Judge between Salem attorneys David Carlson and Michelle Vlach-Ing remained close. Carlson led with 39,114 votes to Vlach-Ing’s 36,920 as of Thursday evening. Marion County election officials still have more than 50,000 ballots remaining to count, Clerk Bill Burgess said Friday morning. That’s partly thanks to an influx of voters turning ballots in on Election Day. Tallies released Thursday evening showed nearly 107,000 ballots counted. Burgess said the count is proceeding slowly because they have a lot of new workers and want to be precise. Any ballots with marks a machine can’t read, like written notes or crossed out candidates, require hand review from two people of differing political parties to agree on the voter’s intent. About 10% of Marion County ballots undergo such review. “We want to be accurate and make sure we have each voter’s intent represented properly,” Burgess said. The county’s ballot counting process has drawn national attention, Burgess said, due to the close race in Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District, which will help determine which party controls the U.S. House as Donald Trump begins his second term. The district includes portions of east Salem and rural Marion County. The Oregonian called the race for Democrat Janelle Bynum Friday morning, saying first-term Rep. Lori Chavez DeRemer, a Republican, had no viable path to victory. Polk County released an updated tally Wednesday evening reflecting 43,005 ballots counted. About 10,000 ballots remained to be counted as of Thursday. Both counties will also receive an unknown number of ballots in the mail. Those ballots get counted if they were postmarked by Election Day and arrive in the mail within a week. Abbey McDonald contributed reporting. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Incumbent legislators, county officials win reelection in Salem area appeared first on Salem Reporter.