PORTLAND, Ore. — Voters in Oregon City will decide Tuesday whether their mayor should keep his job.
Dan Holladay is facing a recall after facing backlash amid several controversies this year: In April, he urged businesses to reopen in violation of Gov. Kate Brown’s stay-home order. His colleagues on city council chastised him over it.
Then in June, according to Oregonian/Oregon Live reporting, critics said he downplayed police brutality against Black people on the NextDoor app amid protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. He said Black people being killed by police was "hardly an epidemic".
People criticized Mayor Holladay again when he took to social media and questioned why "protests, riots, looting and vandalism" were allowed in Portland but small towns couldn't have Fourth of July firework events. He walked out of an emergency meeting city commissioners were holding to address his comments.
A group started a recall petition this summer and collected enough signatures to get it on the ballot. Holladay had a chance to resign but refused to, forcing the issue into a special election.
"The citizens deserve to have a responsible government, a government that is guided by ethics, and morals and accountability. And right now in Oregon City we don't have that," the recall campaign manager Adam Marl told KGW.
Registered voters in Oregon City received two ballots this election cycle: one for the general election and one for the mayoral recall special election.
Ballots for the Oregon City mayor recall are due by Nov. 10 and can be dropped off in one of two official drop box locations. Ballots must be returned in their blue/black striped envelope, and should not have been returned in the same envelope as the general election ballot, as Clackamas County explains in a YouTube video.
As of Monday morning, a little over half of the 26,261 eligible voters in Oregon City had returned their ballots for the mayoral recall election.
If you are an Oregon City voter and have not received your special election ballot, contact the Clackamas County election office. You can also track your ballot here.
If Holladay is voted out of office by a majority vote, a special election for a new mayor would be held in March 2021. Rachel Lyles Smith, Oregon City commission president, would lead city meetings until January, when the commission will select a new president.
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