Five Oregon Counties Vote To Consider Joining Idaho

Oregon Live:

“Five eastern Oregon counties voted Tuesday in favor of considering becoming part of Idaho. Baker, Grant, Lake, Malheur and Sherman counties join Union and Jefferson, which voted last year to require county officials to study or promote joining Idaho.

Grant voted 1,471 to 895 for county officials “to meet and discuss relocating Idaho border.”

Lake voted 1,341 to 463 for the “relocation of Idaho border” to be taken up in “county board of commissioners meetings.” …”

NPR:

“In rural Oregon, voters in several counties want their state to go from Democratic blue to Republican red — and to do that, they hope to leave Oregon altogether and join neighboring Idaho. Five counties approved ballot measures this week, joining two others that had already voted in favor of the idea.

“This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon,” said Mike McCarter, president of the advocacy group Citizens for Greater Idaho.

He added, “If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.”

All seven counties voted heavily for former President Donald Trump — whose name appears 17 times in the advocacy group’s 41-page proposal to shift the borders.

In the movement led by McCarter, conservative voters want to reshuffle counties in eastern and southern Oregon, making them part of Idaho. The plan’s backers want to get ballot initiatives placed on the ballot in more of Oregon’s 36 counties. …”