MARION COUNTY, Ore. — A critical Oregon House seat in Marion County could give Democrats a pivotal supermajority in that chamber.
As of Wednesday night, Democrat Lesley Muñoz leads incumbent Republican Tracy Cramer by 119 votes in the District 22 race; District 22 covers Woodburn and northern Marion County.
On Monday, Munoz led by just over 100 votes, though voters won’t know the winner until results are certified Dec. 2.
Voters whose ballots were challenged have until Nov. 26 to cure them, meaning they can verify their votes by either signing and returning a new voter registration card with their updated signature or by returning a signed voter statement certifying their vote. These then must be received via mail or to the county election office, in person.
Right now, the threshold to trigger an automatic recount is around 41 votes, so Cramer would need a few dozen more votes to go her way to get to that point.
If Muñoz takes the seat, it will give Democrats a 36-to-24 supermajority in that chamber, adding to their supermajority in the state Senate: 18 to 12.
A supermajority means that three-fifths of the seats lean in one political direction. In order to create a new tax or raise existing ones in Oregon, three-fifths of each chamber is needed to vote for it, so hitting that threshold could allow Democrats to take action without having to cross the aisle and get the other side on board.
However, a supermajority is not enough to neutralize legislative walkouts, where members of the minority party flee the capitol in order to deny the majority party the quorum necessary to hold votes on any legislation. A quorum is two-thirds of a chamber's lawmakers, so even a supermajority isn't quite enough to hit that mark.