Oregon Democrats’ ability to fully enact their legislative agenda and pass a transportation funding package next year may come down to a single state House district, now divided by just one vote.  Marion County, home to the state’s capital, is still processing and tallying thousands of votes countywide after dealing with a higher-than-anticipated number of write-in votes that take longer to count. Hundreds of those ballots are in the 22nd House District, one of Oregon’s most competitive districts, based in Woodburn and surrounding agricultural communities.  Early results showed Republican incumbent Tracy Cramer of Gervais with a narrow lead. Oregon’s largest newspaper called the race, the anti-abortion group that supported Cramer’s candidacy touted her victory and Republicans in the House touted their ability to keep Democrats from winning the 36th seat needed to create new taxes or increase existing ones without GOP support. But when Marion County released updated numbers Wednesday evening, Democratic challenger Lesly Muñoz had pulled within 138 votes of Cramer. By Thursday, she was leading by one vote.  Neither Cramer nor Muñoz immediately returned calls for comment. A Muñoz victory would give House Democrats the three-fifths supermajority needed for revenue-raising bills; Senate Democrats crossed that threshold by decisively flipping a Bend-based Senate seat now represented by former Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, a longtime legislator who led his caucus in a quorum-denying 2023 walkout that cost Knopp and nine colleagues the ability to run for reelection.  Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess told the Capital Chronicle his office has 809 ballots for that race that have had ballot envelope signatures verified. Another 733 weren’t accepted — most of those ballots are subject to signature curing, which means that a voter either forgot to sign their ballot envelope or their signature didn’t match the signature election officials had on file. Those voters have until Nov. 26 to fix the issue. All voters should check to make sure their ballot was counted through oregonvotes.gov/myvote or by using BallotTrax in large counties, including Marion, that pay for the service. Voters should also keep an eye on their mailboxes, as county election officials will mail notices to voters who need to correct their signatures.  The county may end up receiving more ballots, in part because some voters return their ballots to a different county than the one they live in. It’s a common mistake in Salem, where the Willamette River divides Polk and Marion counties but not the city of Salem, and Clackamas County delivered a couple hundred ballots to Marion County on Thursday.  “This makes it a pretty dynamic situation where it’s hard to say just exactly how many we’re going to have to count,” Burgess said.  Marion County also had a high number of write-in votes this cycle, with many local races unopposed or missing candidates. Write-ins take longer to tally than other votes, as human workers need to examine each ballot to read the name, make sure that a voter who wrote in a candidate marked the box for a write-in candidate and uncheck that box if a voter marked it without writing a candidate’s name, verify that the candidate written in isn’t already listed on the ballot and make sure that the write-in candidate has a name. Write-in votes for Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus count as write-in votes; write-in votes for “none of the above” do not.  Marion County plans to release additional results Friday and every day that it processes ballots, but the results of close races like the 22nd District may not be known until after the election is certified in December. If the race remains close, Oregon law calls for an automatic recount if the difference between the top two candidates is within 0.2% of the total votes cast. Based on the current number of votes counted in the 22nd District, that would be about 40 votes.  While voters and political prognosticators may need to be patient, Burgess stressed that they’ll be able to trust the results. Every ballot envelope has a unique number, and each voter is allowed only one active ballot.  “Have patience, because we’re going to get it all done, and we’re going to work deliberatively to make sure that each voter’s vote is counted just the way they want it to be counted,” he said.  Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: [email protected]. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter. STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: [email protected]. The post Oregon Democrats have one-vote edge in quest for House supermajority appeared first on Salem Reporter.