History was set Tuesday night in Washington State, where same sex couples will now be allowed to marry and marijuana has been legalized, to be regulated like alcohol.
Also in Washington, in what national pundits called the most competitive race for governor in the nation, Democrat Jay Inslee narrowly bested Republican Rob McKenna in unofficial results, 51 percent to 49 percent.
In Oregon, the incredible roller coaster of an Election Night that swept President Barack Obama back into office saw a paltry 54.98 percent voter participation in Multnomah County; by contrast, Oregon's statewide voter participation rate soared to over 70 percent.
Big winners in Portland included mayoral candidate Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who won their races by big -- in Hales' case landslide -- margins.
Meanwhile every proposed tax and bond measure passed in the City of Portland, including the Arts Tax, the Portland Schools bond and the Multnomah County Library levy.
Oregon's hot-potato statewide measures may be the reason for the higher state turnout, with a major battleground erupting around the Cannabis Tax Act, Measure 80. While Multnomah County voters passed the pot measure by a significant margin, at the state level it went down with a no vote of 54.83 percent.
More votes were cast in that one measure than in any other measure on the Oregon ballot -- 1,408,700 people weighed in on it.
Interestingly, the number spreads for some races showed almost no voter participation -- on Wednesday morning, Greg Macpherson stood as the unofficial winner of the campaign for mayor of Lake Oswego, with only a total of 532 votes.
In national offices Oregon saw the Pacific Green Party's presidential candidate Jill Stein place third in the state. Green candidate for Congress 3rd District, Woody Broadnax, also placed third statewide, right behind the Republican and Democratic candidates.
In the race for Portland mayor, Charlie Hales drew more than twice the votes of challenger Jefferson Smith. Wednesday morning's unofficial count shows Hales pulling slightly over 62 percent compared to Smith's 30 percent.
Fritz was reelected with slightly over 58 percent of the votes; Nolan posted just over 40 percent.
The State Supreme Court, Position 3 race was the rare example of a hot competition between judges, with Richard C Baldwin pulling ahead of Nena Cook, with 93,847 votes to Cook's 87,192.
In Clark County, voters turned down a sales tax increase for C-Tran; turned down a bid to create a metropolitan parks district by a margin of two to one; and voted to put David Madore on the City Commission.
The race for Washington State Senate District 17 showed Wednesday morning that Tim Probst and Don Benton are both at about 50 percent of the vote.
Other winners:
OREGON
Suzanne Bonamici Congress 1st District
Earl Blumenauer Congress, 3rd District
Kurt Schrader Congress, 5th District
Secretary of State Kate Brown
State Treasurer Ted Wheeler
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries Brad Avakian
State Senator, 14th District Mark Hass
State Senator, 18th District Ginny Burdick
State Senator, 21st District Diane Rosenbaum
State Senator, 22nd District Chip Shields
State Senator, 23rd District Jackie Dingfelder
State Senator, 25th District Laurie Monnes Anderson
State Representative, 41st District Carolyn Tomei
State Representative, 42nd District Jules Kopel Bailey
State Representative, 43rd District Lew Frederick
State Representative, 44th District Tina Kotek
State Representative, 45th District Michael Dembrow
State Representative, 46th District Alissa Keny-Guyer
Judge of the Court of Appeals, Position 6 Tim Volpert
Council, Pos. 1 CITY OF GRESHAM Jerry Hinton
Council, Pos. 3 CITY OF GRESHAM Karylinn Echols
Council, Pos. 5 CITY OF GRESHAM Mike McCormick
Mayor CITY OF PORTLAND Charlie Hales
Mayor CITY OF TROUTDALE Doug Daoust
Mayor CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO Greg Macpherson
OREGON BALLOT MEASURES
County Measure 26-143 The Multnomah County library levy YES 61.52 percent
26-144 PORTLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT Bond YES 65.03 percent
26-145 CITY OF PORTLAND police and fire disability reform YES 74.63 percent
26-146 CITY OF PORTLAND Arts Tax YES 59.76 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 77 disaster declaration YES 58 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 78 grammatical changes to Constitution YES 71.76 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 79 prohibits real estate transfer taxes YES 59.37 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 80 Cannabis Tax Act NO 54.99 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 81 bans gillnetting NO 66.11 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 82 NO 71.58 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 83 NO 70.71 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 84 phases out real estate transfer taxes on large estates NO 53.70 percent
State Ballot Measure No. 85 corporate kicker reform YES 58.97 percent
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