In our newsroom, the anticipation is building. 

Tuesday is Election Day.

For the past few months, reporters have profiled candidates, covered races and tracked who gave campaign finance donations to candidates. We also chatted with Lane County’s clerk about how ballots are tracked, and we documented the start of a new technological pilot project.

On election night, we’ll cover the results and update our site with results as they come in from the elections office.

All returned ballots must be in drop boxes or postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. However, election officials advised voters who mailed their ballots to do so by Oct. 27, given the slowness of the postal service. That means if you have not cast your ballot yet, a drop box is the recommended way to do so.

For information about voting in Lane County, see this story, which includes a linked list of all 25 drop-box locations in Lane County. Several locations were just added, giving voters more access and options.

As a reminder, our election stories are free to all readers as a public service. If you’re still getting up to speed on the races, you can see all of our election coverage compiled here. 

These stories represent the cumulative work of the largest local newsroom between Portland and Sacramento.  

Thanks to all the readers and candidates who took our calls, chatted with us and passed along tips, feedback, praise and criticism. Win or lose, please keep doing that after the election.

The official drop box at the Lane County Elections office in Eugene. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Lookout’s CleanLane coverage gets some special treatment

CleanLane: Our complaint department has been running hot lately. Standard operating procedure when holding local government accountable.

Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky took to video to publicly rail against Lookout’s reporting on CleanLane, which revealed how the former county counsel warned of major liability risks surrounding the CleanLane recycling project.

The backstory: Our original story was built on an internal legal memo and a separate whistleblower retaliation complaint. Both documents were written by former county counsel Rob Bovett before commissioners abruptly ended his contract and handed him a one-year severance check.

The latest: In other developments, interim County Counsel Mallory R. Beebe has emailed Lookout senior correspondent Ben Botkin asking him to “return” the records to the county.

Spoiler alert: Botkin didn’t hand them over.

Executive Editor Dann Miller weighed in with a column dissecting the pushback and standing up for journalism.

It’s all in a day’s work. We like working in a hot kitchen as we serve up stories in the public interest.

— Ben Botkin

Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to receive Willamette Watchdog every Monday in your inbox.

Inside Eugene City hall with Grace chinowsky

The volts are in: Beginning in April 2027, the city of Eugene will require people selling their homes to include in real estate listings an assessment of the property’s energy performance, known as a home energy score. The City Council voted 6-1 to enact the program. 

Preserving stories from the past: The city has launched a cross-departmental effort to better document the city’s early Black history, in part through interviews with descendants of Eugene’s first known Black families. Submit memories, reflections, historical information and artifacts for the project here. 

UO budget blues: Over on campus, the University of Oregon on Wednesday proposed phasing out over a dozen graduate programs, largely in the humanities, reducing graduate employee funding and reorganizing several academic units to address a $63.3 million projected deficit. More than 100 positions could be cut.

Checking in on Springfield With lillian Schrock-Clevenger

CAHOOTS in Springfield: Changes could be coming to mobile crisis response in Springfield more than a year after CAHOOTS stopped operating in Eugene.

Springfield has contracted with CAHOOTS, a White Bird Clinic service, since 2015 to provide crisis services. The current contract is about to expire, and the city is seeking proposals from interested providers for a competitive process. White Bird could submit a new proposal. The nonprofit organization told Lookout it is reviewing the request and will decide soon.

Road fund deficit: City Council may have to decide which services to cut as the city’s street fund faces a growing deficit. At a work session last week, councilors said community members are concerned about local roads. Staff said that while bond funds have gone toward collector and arterial streets, the city hasn’t been able to keep up with local streets maintenance.

beyond lane county

Voter turnout: A week before Election Day, more than 800,000 Oregon voters returned ballots, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. That’s about one-quarter of all registered voters. 

Rural firefighting: Also from the Oregon Capital Chronicle: This piece looks at ballot measures in rural counties to help fund firefighting. 

Public Meetings this week

Monday

  • Springfield City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. for a work session to discuss nuisance liens and deliberate on an annexation request for a behavioral health campus. 
  • Springfield City Council holds a regular meeting at 7 p.m. for a public hearing on uses of a police department grant and council vote on the behavioral health campus annexation. 

Tuesday

  • Lane County commissioners meet at 9 a.m. 
  • Springfield Library Advisory Board meets at 5:30 p.m.
  • The Eugene Homelessness and Poverty Workgroup, a subgroup of the Human Rights Commission, meets at 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday

Thursday

Do you have story ideas or tips? Send them our way: ben@lookoutlocal.com | grace@lookoutlocal.com | lilliansc@lookoutlocal.com

Download the Lookout Eugene-Springfield app in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Our content isn’t possible without community support, so if you’re not already, please consider becoming a Lookout member.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.

Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as editor-in-chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.