HEPPNER – Morrow County will have a new sheriff and county clerk after Tuesday’s election, but the justice of the peace will remain the same.

Unofficial Morrow County election returns released early today showed the sheriff’s race close with only 36 votes separating Ken Matlack of Irrigon and incumbent Sheriff Verlin Denton.

Charlotte Gray appears to have won re-election as justice of the peace by about 150 votes over Betty Burns.

And in the county clerk race, Bobbi Childers held a commanding lead over Cyde Marie Estes, unofficial results show.

Power outages affected posting of election results for about 90 minutes Tuesday evening, but elections officials said the actual counting was not hindered.

Here are rundowns on Morrow County races:

Sheriff

Unofficial, but mostly complete, results show Matlack beating Denton.

As of this morning, Matlack had received 1,970 votes, for 47 percent. Denton had 1,934 votes, for 46 percent.

“I’m very happy with the results,” Matlack said. “I’m looking forward to the challenges that await me.”

Although the 36-vote margin is still considered unofficial, a change in the outcome is unlikely.

“I expected it was going to be pretty close,” Denton said. “My opponent worked hard, and it looks like it might be successful.”

Matlack said his extensive campaigning clearly helped him.

“By doing the leg work and contacting the people, that’s the only way you would be able to win. And I think that hard work really paid off,” Matlack said. “It was absolutely critical to knock on all those doors.”

In addition to serving as sheriff, Matlack is on the Irrigon City Council, Morrow County Health District board and Morrow County School Board.

Matlack’s campaign focussed on increasing the visibility of deputies in both north and south ends of the county, as well as bolstering the reserve ranks of the department with officers living in each community.

But Matlack will face a looming budget crunch – the county’s assessed value is expected to drop over the next few years.

County clerk

Childers will be the new clerk for Morrow County after receiving 2,446 votes, for 59 percent, Tuesday night, unofficial results show. Her opponent, Estes, received 1,364 votes, for 32 percent.

Estes made several trips to the county courthouse Tuesday night to check results. She said she was disappointed in the final outcome, adding the race had been a good one.

Childers, who as chief deputy clerk spent the night tabulating Morrow County’s election results, was excited with the results.

“I am very tickled,” Childers said. “I am never going to be bored.”

Childers, 44, has been the county’s chief deputy clerk the past four years. Before that, she worked in the Morrow County School District nine years as a media technician and computer coordinator.

Childers has said her No. 1 priority as Morrow County clerk will be to upgrade technology.

Justice of the peace

Charlotte Gray narrowly won a fifth term as Morrow County’s justice of the peace Tuesday night, taking 52 percent of the vote over Ione businesswoman Betty Burns.

After a hand recount in the May primary election that showed Gray came up short of the required 50 percent by two votes, Gray took 2,003 votes to 1,850 for Burns Tuesday, according to unofficial results released this morning.

“I’m going to be cautiously optimistic until it’s official,” Gray said. “I’m very happy and if it stays that way, I’ll be very, very happy.”

This will be the last six-year term Gray will serve as justice of the peace. Judges have a mandatory retirement age of 72, and she would only be eligible to serve up to two years of a sixth term.

Gray was appointed Morrow County’s justice of the peace for the first time in 1978 and has worked in justice courts for more than 30 years. She said she thinks her experience and background in the justice courts helped earn her another term.

“I know that I have the experience to do the job,” Gray said this morning. “But I do know that could be a negative as well with some people who think I’ve been here too long.”

Gray said she does not plan to change the way she runs things in Morrow County, but said if change is needed, she’s not opposed to it.

Burns was unavailable this morning for comment.

“Betty ran a very hard campaign,” Gray said of her opponent.

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EO reporters Brook Griffin, AmyJo Brown and Casey White contributed to this story.