BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM-Nearly one week after the state’s primary election came to a close, the race for the nonpartisan position of Superintendent of Public Instruction still appears to be too close to call.

Incumbent candidate Susan Castillo was leading Dr. Ron Maurer by less than 1% point on Saturday and just over 3,000 votes. She leads in a number of the state’s more populous counties like Multnomah and Lane counties. Maurer, however, has been ahead in Clackamas, Linn, and Deschutes counties.

The race in Washington County is particularly close with less than a thousand votes separating the two candidates.

Because the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction is nonpartisan, it requires the winning candidate to receive one vote over the 50% mark. If the results fall within one-fifth of a percentage point of each other, then there will be a mandatory recount.

Otherwise, any party, citizen, or candidate can request a recount at their own expense which could cost upwards of $100,000.

The wrench in this race appears to be the large number of write-in votes. There have been over 2,000 write-ins counted so far, and ballots are still being counted. Those still to be counted were either delivered to the incorrect counties, had a problem with their signatures or had incomplete or hard to interpret votes cast.