How Deschutes County voted, precinct by precinct

The final results of the 2016 election were certified by Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship on Monday, accompanied by the release of vote counts from individual precincts.

In the final official tally, Republican and president-elect Donald Trump won 46.4 percent of the vote in Deschutes County, while Democrat Hillary Clinton won 43 percent. As was the case nationwide, Trump found his best results in rural areas. Clinton ran strongest in Bend but lost most other areas of Deschutes County.

In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney won 51.9 percent of the vote in Deschutes County to 45.1 percent won by President Barack Obama.

Although Oregon’s vote-by-mail system has eliminated the need to divide counties into precincts to open polling places, precincts still exist. Of Deschutes County’s 50 precincts, Trump won in 31, Clinton in 19.

Precinct-level data released by the clerk’s office Monday allows for a neighborhood-by-neighborhood look at how county residents voted, and how their preferences have changed in the past four years.

Clinton picked up seven precincts that were won by Romney in 2012: precincts 8, 11, 16, 22, 25, 34 and 35. Four years ago, Romney accumulated a 535-vote edge over Obama in those precincts, while this year, Clinton came out 991 votes ahead of Trump in those same areas. Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch, the area east of Pilot Butte, and the Skyline Ranch neighborhood on Bend’s far west side were among the precincts that flipped from Republican to Democrat in 2016.

The most dramatic turnaround among the precincts that flipped from 2012 to 2016 was in precinct 35, covering much of Bend’s Awbrey Butte neighborhood. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in precinct 35 by less than 1 percent. In 2012, Romney won 51.5 percent of the vote to Obama’s 46.4. This year, Clinton took 55.7 percent of the vote while Trump drew 34.3.

Trump did not win any precincts that were not also won by Romney four years earlier.

The most strongly Democratic and Republican precincts in Deschutes County were generally even more so this year.

The county’s five most Democratic precincts by registration, all in Bend and all west of Third Street, went far more strongly for Clinton than they did for Obama four years earlier. In precinct 3, tucked between Newport and Galveston avenues and running west to include Northwest Crossing, Clinton drew 70 percent of the vote and Trump 19.4. Although Obama won the area comfortably in 2012, Clinton’s margin expanded the gap between the Democratic and Republican candidates by an additional 18.5 percentage points. Democrats’ margin over Republicans improved by at least 6.3 percent in each of the most strongly Democratic precincts.

In the county’s five most Republican precincts, all relatively rural, Trump expanded Republican margins in three and lost ground compared to Romney in two. In precinct 10, the vast area stretching from Alfalfa eastward, Trump beat Clinton by a 61.6 to 33.6 percent margin, increasing the margin between Romney and Obama by 13 points. On the other hand, in precinct 31, an area including the western edge of Redmond and Eagle Crest, Trump’s 57.1 to 33.6 margin represented a 10.2 percent improvement by Democrats over the 2012 results.

Trump won all four precincts within Redmond city limits, all by comfortable margins, for a 56.9 to 30.4 percent win in the city. Trump also won in the precincts most closely aligned with the boundaries of Sisters and La Pine, 43.8 to 41.4 percent in Sisters, and 63.4 to 25.2 percent in La Pine.

The biggest surprise in 2016 may have been the small group of voters who cast a ballot but declined to weigh in on Clinton vs. Trump.

There were 3,265 write-in votes for president in Deschutes County this year, 3.3 percent of the total ballots cast. In 2012, just 563 voters — 0.7 percent — cast a write-in vote. Write-ins actually outpolled the Green Party ticket headed by Jill Stein, which picked up 2 percent, while Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson had a good showing by third party standards, picking up 5.2 percent of the vote.

Skipping the presidential race entirely was far more popular this year as well. There were 1,669 “undervotes” — no candidate selected — in the presidential race, 1.7 percent of the total. In 2008, undervotes totaled just 0.9 percent of the county’s total ballots cast.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulleitn.com