Council pay hike has hefty lead in early results, as do Ruby and Hatch in Ashland School District board seat voting

Ashland.news staff report

11 p.m. update:

Backers of Measure 15-214 picked up 11 votes in the second batch of results released Tuesday evening by the Jackson County Elections Office, but “yes” still trails “no” 3,230 to 3,185, or 50.35 to 49.65 percent, as of the 10:45 p.m. update.

Measure 15-215 boosting pay for the Ashland mayor and councilors continued to cruise toward enactment, now by a margin of 4,609 to 1, 744, or 73 to 27 percent.

Dan Ruby and Russell Hatch continued to lead in contests for seats on the Ashland School District board with comfortable totals of 56 and 70 percent respectively, both within a percent of initial tallies.

Original story:

A mere 56 votes — 1 percent of those cast — separates yes and no tallies in the first batch of vote totals on whether to amend how Ashland Food and Beverage Tax revenues are distributed.

No was ahead 2,787 votes to 2,731 yes votes in totals on Measure 15-214 released shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday by the Jackson County Elections Office.

Measure 15-215, boosting pay for Ashland City Council councilors and the mayor, is on its way to passage with 3,952 votes in favor — 72 percent — to 1,509 no votes, 28 percent.

Dan Ruby leads Russell Phillips in the contest for Ashland School District Position 2, 2,946 to 2,253, or 57 percent to 43 percent.

Russell Hatch with 3,515 votes, or 69 percent, holds a comfortable lead over Toria Clason with 1,578 votes, or 31 percent, in the race for Position 5 on the school board.

The county Elections Office is expected to release updated vote totals at 11 p.m. Tuesday. This story will be updated then.

Email Ashland.news Executive Editor Bert Etling at betling@ashland.news or call or text him at 541-631-1313.