November 03, 2004

The Oregon Secretary of State is reporting that with 1,155,000 votes tabulated, Measure 35, which would apply limits akin to California's MICRA to medical malpractice suits, has an almost exactly equal number of "yes" and "no" votes. Specifically, the yes side has 577,263 or 49.97%, while the no side has 577,855 votes or 50.03%, an edge of less than 600 votes. It appears that many votes remain to be counted, however. There were big geographic disparities in the vote, with the measure passing in most of the state's counties but suffering a 38-62 deficit (as of this moment) in Multnomah County (Portland), as this table reveals.