ENTERPRISE — As challenged and late ballots trickled into the Wallowa County Courthouse, proponents of the Greater Idaho ballot measure in the May 16 election were confident enough to declare victory Thursday, May 25.

Wallowa County Clerk Sandy Lathrop confirmed this Friday, although she said there will be an automatic recount so final results will be held up until the process is completed. She also emphasized that the state elections calendar lists numerous hoops that have to be jumped through between now and the end of the fiscal year, June 30, before the election is considered final.

As of Thursday, the vote was 1,752 to 1,744 in favor of Ballot Measure 32-007, which directs the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners to meet once each August and each February to discuss the county’s interests in relocating the state border.

Generally, it is assumed this would mean looking toward including Wallowa County within Idaho, but the ballot measure does not specify a state. It also does not say how long the commissioners must continue to hold such meetings.

The next step will be for the commissioners to schedule a meeting to discuss the issue in August.

The Greater Idaho press release stated that there are only six ballots unaccounted for, so even if all were to come in and be against the ballot measure, it would still pass.

“The group has won 12 out of the 12 counties that have voted on such a measure,” the Greater Idaho press release stated.

This is the second time that a Greater Idaho measure has been on the Wallowa County ballot: A 2020 measure that would have had the commissioners discuss Greater Idaho three times a year failed by 46 votes. 

ENTERPRISE — The already-thin lead for Wallowa County’s Greater Idaho ballot measure shrunk by a pair of votes on Monday, May 21 and now is at the point where an automatic recount would be triggered.

According to unofficial returns logged at the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, Ballot Measure 32-007 now leads by five votes, 1,747 to 1,742. Throughout the weekend, the lead stayed steady at seven votes. The first batch of results released on Tuesday, May 16 had the measure leading by 21 votes.

The measure directs the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners to twice each year discuss and promote the county’s interests in relocating the state line to align the county with another state, presumably Idaho, although the measure doesn’t specify Idaho.

County Clerk Sandy Lathrop said Monday that a seven-vote gap in this case is what it takes to trigger an automatic recount. State law requires the recount in races when the margin of victory is not more than one-fifth of 1% of the total votes cast for the measure. The current five-vote lead works out to about 0.14%.

Ballots that were postmarked before 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 16 can still be counted, if they arrive at the county Elections Office by Tuesday, May 23. Challenged ballots — in which the signatures on the outer envelope did not match the signatures on file with the Clerk’s Office —have two weeks to be corrected; those ballots have been returned to voters.

Once the final deadline passes — assuming the recount threshold stands — Lathrop will contact the Secretary of State’s Office and she will be directed to do a recount. Then, she’ll bring in the election board to recount by the ballots by hand.

But until the deadline passes, it’s all speculation.

“I’ve got another week and then we’ll know,” she said.

The Greater Idaho measure helped to push countywide voter turnout to what could be a record for an off-year election. The turnout in Wallowa County was 55.6%, twice the turnout statewide, and easily the best mark in any of Oregon’s counties.

There were 3,546 ballots counted from 6,376 active registered voters.

This is the second time a Greater Idaho measure has been put to Wallowa County voters. In 2020, a similar measure failed 2,531 to 2,485 — a difference of just 46 votes.

Matt McCaw, spokesman for the Greater Idaho movement, said last week that the movement isn’t done with its work.

He said the judge of the Crook County Court told him that county will put an advisory question on its next ballot.

“That will leave us with only Gilliam and Umatilla counties having not voted on our measures” in Eastern Oregon, McCaw said.

“At this point, we have proven that the people of Eastern Oregon want their elected leaders to pursue moving the border as a long-term solution to the urban/rural divide in our state,” McCaw said.

He noted that the Idaho House of Representatives approved a bill supporting the measure in February, but the Idaho Senate had taken no action. Idaho’s Legislature adjourned for the year April 6. A similar measure, Senate Joint Memorial 2, was filed in the Oregon Legislature in the 2023 session. The measure called for discussions between the state’s two legislatures on the issue, but it continues to languish in the Senate Committee on Rules.

McCaw said his movement is continuing to make the case for moving the border to the Oregon Legislature.

“We are lobbying the Oregon Legislature and governor to ask them to consider the benefits to Western Oregon of allowing Eastern Oregon to choose which state to join,” he said.

Commissioners reactThe Wallowa County ballot measure calls for the county Board of Commissioners to hold discussions on aligning Wallowa County with Idaho in August and February of each year. Board Chairman John Hillock said he’s still uncertain what the commissioners’ first discussion session in August will look like — or even where it will take place. He said the commissioners may hold it at Cloverleaf Hall if it appears it will generate a large turnout.

“If more people show up, we might do it at a bigger venue,” he said. “We don’t know that right now.”

He’s also considering talking with commissioners in other counties where such meetings have taken place. He said Grant County is a likely candidate to gain some insight, as its commissioners have asked its state lawmakers to bring up the issue in the Legislature. (Meetings in Grant County also have started to attract organized opponents to Greater Idaho.)

Commissioner Todd Nash said he hopes to talk to other commissioners from around the state who have participated in meetings such as those mandated by the ballot measure. He hopes to learn what issues they have dealt with and how their meetings have gone.

He noted that as chairman, Hillock will direct the first such meeting. Nash said the ballot measure is quite clear about what the commissioners are to do if it passes — they’re to discuss what it will take to make the county part of Idaho.

“For me, if I had my druthers, we’d start to look at what the positive and the negative things are about becoming a part of Idaho,” Nash said.

He also said he hopes to draw the public into the discussion.

“I think this is really geared toward public participation as much as anything,” he said.

Eventually, through thorough discussion and consideration of what a border move would look like, it may be appropriate to seek a popular vote on whether Wallowa County residents actually want to become Idahoans.

“That would be a pertinent point,” Nash said, and Hillock agreed.

On its website, the Greater Idaho movement cites a study that says residents in Western Oregon would prefer to have rural, conservative Eastern Oregon attach itself to Idaho and stop being a drain on the resources and politics of a blue state. Nash said in asking around in Western Oregon, he hasn’t come across such opinions.

“I just haven’t seen it,” he said.

But the two commissioners (the third commissioner, Susan Roberts, was out of state) said they would follow voters’ directions and move ahead with the discussion.

“I’m taking a neutral position and doing what the people want within the law,” Hillock said.