Sarah Finger McDonald is on track to defeat Sami Al-Abdrabbuh in the 16th House District Democratic primary, according to unofficial results updated Wednesday.
The two Corvallis School Board members ran in a competitive race for an open seat in the reliably Democratic district that encompasses Corvallis and surrounding areas. Current Democratic Rep. Dan Rayfield, also the former House speaker, is running for attorney general.
McDonald has 5,073 votes to Al-Abdrabbuh’s 4,892, a lead of 181 votes, after Benton County updated election results on Wednesday evening for the first time since election night. Al-Abdrabbuh had narrowed the gap slightly, from 188 votes.
Benton County Clerk James Morales told the Capital Chronicle the county has finished processing all of its ballots and is waiting to resolve challenges to more than 300 ballots countywide. Historically, about 25% of voters with challenged ballots have come in to cure them, and Morales said it’s highly unlikely the results would change.
At this point, neither side is conceding or claiming victory.
McDonald said she’s waiting to see more results before making an announcement that declares victory. Assuming she prevails, she said she’ll spend time meeting with constituents and legislative colleagues so she can hit the ground running in January.
Al-Abdrabbuh said he’s grateful the community showed up and voted and he’s thankful for his volunteers. Now, he’s waiting for the final results.
“Right now I’m really being patient to make sure every vote is counted,” he said. “I take that very seriously.”
The race isn’t close enough to trigger a recount, as happened when former Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond, won a primary by just two votes in 2018. Recounts are only triggered when the difference between candidates is equal or less than 0.2% of the total votes cast for both candidates — in this case, 20 votes.
by Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle
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