Jon Hinch at City Hall Following His Election to the City Council.

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 1,556)

As expected, the referendum to legalize the limited use of recreational  marijuana by adults 21 years or older passed tonight. 9,921 voted in favor of it and 4,823 opposed the legalization.   Simon Thompson, 21, said he was not surprised by the results.  “There was pretty of broad support for keeping non-violent drug abusers out of jail. It leaves a lot of questions about how it fits within state and federal laws.  Perhaps this will pressure the state and federal governments to move legalization faster.”

In the school board-at-large election, Anna J. Trevorrow and Pious A. Ali were the two winners.  Trevorrow won 5,965 votes and Ali earned 5,073 votes from Portland voters.

In the councilor-at-large four year term, councilor Jill Duson was easily over her two opponents.  Chris Shorr and Greg Smaha.

In a second councilor-at-large race three year term race, Jon Hinck won with 7,101 votes over his opponent Wells Lyons.  The latter had 5,171 votes.  “I was very pleased with the outcome.  Wells was a good candidate.  Most of the people who voted for me liked him. It was close when we started, but I worked very hard,” said Hinck at city hall after all the ballots were counted.

The swearing in ceremony is on the first Monday of December at noon.