Oregon Public Broadcasting

Friday is the last chance for people with problematic ballots from the May primary to make sure they’re counted.  Rob Manning reports.

Secretary of State spokesman, Don Hamilton says after every election, county elections' offices call thousands of Oregon voters about problems with their ballots.

Don Hamilton: "This is just a matter of making sure that the signature on your ballot is actually your signature. Sometimes they don’t match. Sometimes they change over the years."

Normally, politicians ignore this step, because there aren't enough votes at stake to decide major races. 

But the Oregon Republican Party sent emails out late yesterday asking any of their supporters who got calls from election officials to go straighten out their signatures.

The party is targeting the race for state schools' superintendent.

The race is technically non partisan. But incumbent Susan Castillo, a Democrat, is only about 300 votes above the 50 percent majority she needs to avoid a runoff with Republican Ron Maurer.

There are less than 4,000 votes left to count. Many of them have problem signatures.