Author

Julia Shumway has reported on government and politics in Iowa and Nebraska, spent time at the Bend Bulletin and most recently was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix. An award-winning journalist, Julia most recently reported on the tangled efforts to audit the presidential results in Arizona.
Two weeks after primary, Clackamas County almost done counting ballots
By: Julia Shumway - May 31, 2022
Two weeks after the May 17 election, Clackamas County is nearly done counting ballots. The county had fewer than 5,000 ballots left to count Tuesday morning after dozens of county employees took shifts copying defective ballots by hand over Memorial Day weekend. More than 3,600 of the remaining ballots still need to be duplicated. Delays […]
Clackamas County will keep processing ballots through Memorial Day weekend
By: Julia Shumway - May 27, 2022
Clackamas County employees will work through the long weekend copying more than 30,000 damaged ballots as the third-largest county in Oregon continues processing ballots from the May 17 election. As of Friday morning, Clackamas still needed to count 34,996 ballots. Nearly every one needed to be copied by hand by bipartisan volunteers because of a […]
Jamie McLeod-Skinner defeats incumbent Kurt Schrader in Oregon 5th District
By: Julia Shumway - May 27, 2022
Seven-term moderate Kurt Schrader’s congressional career will end in January after a primary election loss to central Oregon attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner. The final margins might change as Clackamas County, Schrader’s home, continues processing almost 35,000 damaged ballots, but McLeod-Skinner received almost 57% of the votes counted in the 5th Congressional District, which spans Portland to […]
$1.65 million earmarked to restore Oregon streams, wetlands, prairies
By: Julia Shumway - May 26, 2022
Oregon streams, wetlands and prairies will get $1.65 million in federal funds to restore wildlife habitat, the state’s senators announced this week. The money is part of $26 million the U.S.Bureau of Land Management will spend nationally this year to restore ecosystems and comes from last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law. “Most Oregonians will tell you […]
Oregon Congressional Democrats call for federal gun control after Texas shooting
By: Julia Shumway and Lynne Terry - May 26, 2022
Democrats in Oregon’s congressional delegation renewed calls for Congress to take up federal gun control legislation following a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, while the state’s lone Republican congressman remained silent. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader responded to detailed […]
Clackamas County still struggling to count ballots a week after Election Day
By: Julia Shumway - May 24, 2022
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 8 p.m. Oregonians likely won’t know the results of the May 17 election in Clackamas County until the weekend, or possibly until June. A memo Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall sent Secretary of State Shemia Fagan on Tuesday evening said it will take the county between four and nine […]
After Election Day defeats, ‘Greater Idaho’ backers done trying to reach Oregon coast
By: Julia Shumway - May 23, 2022
After voters in Douglas and Josephine counties rejected the idea of joining Idaho last week, a group trying to change Oregon’s eastern boundary is giving up on extending the Gem State to the Pacific Ocean. Votes for the “Greater Idaho” movement in nine counties, including Klamath County last week, can’t actually change Oregon’s borders. That […]
Complaints mount as delays drag on for Clackamas ballot counting
By: Julia Shumway - May 20, 2022
A top Clackamas County official ordered all employees to pitch in at the county elections office, one congressional campaign complained of unequal treatment and a legislator demanded an inquiry as ballot-counting issues continue to delay election results from Oregon’s third largest county. By Thursday evening, the last time Clackamas County updated election results, it had […]
Drazan wins Oregon governor primary with about a quarter of Republican voters
By: Julia Shumway - May 19, 2022
Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan has a monumental task in front of her: convincing the more than three-quarters of Republican primary voters who preferred other candidates to coalesce around her campaign going into the fall election. Drazan officially accepted her party’s nomination during a brief meeting with reporters Thursday morning, a day after runner-up Bob […]
Oregon still collecting more tax revenue than economists anticipated
By: Julia Shumway - May 18, 2022
Oregon tax collections continue to surge, with Oregonians paying $1.2 billion more in income taxes this spring than last year. The increasing state revenues aren’t due to higher taxes. Instead, according to Oregon’s quarterly economic forecast, many people cashed in assets in late 2021, causing a short-term income boost. Most of the tax windfall will […]
Slow vote counting in Clackamas County could delay Congressional results until next week
By: Julia Shumway - May 18, 2022
About 200 Clackamas County employees will be temporarily assigned to process ballots beginning Thursday as the third-largest county in Oregon struggles to process election results. Printing errors on many ballots made them unreadable by county machines, resulting in bipartisan teams of election workers hand-copying affected ballots. By midday Wednesday, the county had still only counted […]
Tiernan concedes, but Drazan not ready to declare victory in Oregon GOP primary
By: Julia Shumway - May 18, 2022
Christine Drazan’s main primary opponent conceded the Republican race for governor Wednesday, but the Canby Republican isn’t ready to declare victory. Drazan, the former House minority leader, said in a statement that former Oregon Republican Party Chair Bob Tiernan conceded the race Wednesday. Drazan led Tiernan by about 13,000 votes with at least 80,000 Republican […]