Nafisa Fai Takes Narrow Lead Over Pam Treece In Washington County Chair Race as Votes Continue Being Counted Eight Days Post Election

Washington County, OR. — Nafisa Fai has narrowly overtaken Pam Treece in the race for Washington County chair, with just 363 votes separating the two commissioners in updated unofficial election results.

Fai received 109,256 votes, or 49.61%, while Treece received 108,893 votes, or 49.45%. Write-in candidates accounted for 2,074 votes, or 0.94%, bringing the total valid votes in the contest to 220,223.

The new tally reverses Treece’s initial lead. In the county’s election night midnight report, Treece led by 4,127 votes, receiving 51.12% to Fai’s 48.01%. The candidates are now separated by approximately 0.16 percentage points.

The updated report recorded 263,541 ballots from 409,853 registered voters, putting turnout at 64.30%. Of those ballots, 43,182 contained no selection in the chair race, while 136 marked more choices than allowed.

The close contest follows an October controversy involving conflicting imagery of Fai speaking at a Minneapolis event with an upside-down American flag. The Oregon Journalism Project initially labeled footage of the event a deepfake, then retracted its story after additional images confirmed the inverted flag was present.

As Right Now Oregon previously reported, a competing still image showing the flag upright tested positive for a watermark associated with OpenAI tools. Fai denied that she or her team produced or approved the material. The reporting did not establish who created the altered image. rightnoworegon.com

With Fai holding a narrow advantage, the race remains unsettled in the unofficial tally. Additional counting could change the margin before the results are certified.