EUGENE, Ore. — The numbers are in from Tuesday night’s special election. Now the communities that had issues on the ballot are planning changes or cuts.
There were plenty of surprise election results in Lane County– the passage of the public safety levy, the failure of the Eugene service fee–but maybe the most shocking result was the voter turnout.
Lane County election workers expected 50 to 55 percent of registered voters to turn their ballots in. Instead, the number was just shy of 40 percent.
Residents say they can’t understand why people wouldn’t exercise their right to vote.
“People do have a lot of opinions, but then they don’t really want to do that much or they don’t want to vote or they’re too busy. You know, it does seem kind of hypocritical,” said Eugene resident Bryan Shephard.
Voters told KEZI 9 News they conceded this wasn’t a major election. But because there were important measures on the ballot, they thought more people would want to weigh in.
