Challenger John Wilson held a narrow lead over incumbent Pat Malone in the contested Democratic primary for Benton County commissioner, while Philomath voters were comfortably approving a five-year fire district operating levy, narrowly backing a psilocybin ban and approving all seven annexation proposals, according to updated returns released Tuesday night by the Benton County Records and Elections Department.
The 10:45 p.m. tally was the second batch of results posted on election night. The county reported 23,323 ballots counted out of 61,166 active registered voters, for a turnout of 38.13%.
In the Position 1 race for the Benton County Board of Commissioners, Wilson led Malone 5,654 to 5,412 — a margin of 242 votes, or 51.02% to 48.84%. Write-ins accounted for 15 votes. With no Republican filing for the seat, the winner of the Democratic primary will be the only major-party candidate on the November general election ballot…