BEND, Ore. - Residents of a remote county in eastern Oregon where armed men seized a federal wildlife refuge voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to keep in office a top local official who had denied the occupiers access to a government building.
Harney County Judge Steve Grasty had faced the special recall election because he refused to let the activists, who said they were protesting federal land-use policies, use a county building to host a meeting.
Supporters of the recall say Grasty violated rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.
According to unofficial results 2,038 residents, or 70 per cent of votes cast, opposed recalling Grasty; 861 residents, representing 30 per cent of ballots cast, voted to remove him.
"Looks like a strong statement was made," Harney County Clerk Derrin E. "Dag" Robinson told The Associated Press.
The first recall effort in this high-desert county in 21 years underscored divisions that remain more than four months after the 41-day occupation ended Feb. 11.
The group took over the refuge in opposition to federal government overreach.
"I certainly hope, after tonight, we can work as a community to heal, let the past go, and move forward in a positive way," Robinson said.
Most signs in a nearby town and on ranch fence posts were for Grasty, who, even though he prevailed in the recall effort, retires in December.
He had told the AP in a recent interview that he viewed this special election as a referendum on how he and other county officials handled the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
More than two dozen occupiers were arrested amid the takeover, and one was shot dead at a roadblock confrontation with law enforcement officers. Several have pleaded guilty to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of a charge of firearms possession in a federal facility. Most of the remaining defendants, including leader Ammon Bundy, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 7.
The headquarters of the 188,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 30 miles south of Burns, is still closed, though refuge roads are open. Refuge manager Chad Karges said he expects the headquarters to reopen in late summer or early fall.
The county's last recall election, in June 1995 against another county judge and a county commissioner, resoundingly failed, Robinson noted. The recall petition had complained, among other things, that the judge had "purchased luxury automobiles with the taxes of people struggling to survive."
"They were Fords, Crown Victorias," Robinson, who that year worked for the county clerk's office as an intern, remembered with a laugh. "They were not luxury cars."
The issues this time are rooted in something more serious - seizure of federal property by occupiers from out of state, and the standoff turned deadly. Their presence, and that of hundreds of law enforcement officers, put county residents on edge.
Grasty told AP that he stands by his decision to deny Bundy from using a county building to hold a public meeting.
"He had already taken over, with firearms, a whole compound of buildings. And (the request) didn't make sense to me, nor did it fit public policy about public safety," Grasty said.
Robinson said Harney County recently got a scanning machine for examining ballots and tallying election results; this election was the second time the county has used it.
He said he had posted on his own Facebook page to try to boost voter participation. The county lacks a radio station and has only a weekly newspaper.
Voter participation in the Tuesday recall vote was 65 per cent, he said.
