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Portland City Hall, in Portland, Ore., July, 2023.
Caden Perry / OPB
Early election returns in Portland offered a bit of clarity on the results of the city’s historic City Council race — and the names include former elected officials at the city and county level.
The results are still preliminary as the city navigates its first election under the ranked choice voting system.
This system, approved by voters in 2022, lets voters rank their choices by preference. For the City Council races, which are divided into four districts, the top three vote-getters for each district win a seat. That means candidates will need to earn just over 25% of their district’s vote to win.
According to the Multnomah County Elections Office, the software to count ballots under this new system takes longer to process results, meaning it will only be updating ballot counts once each day. The next round of results will drop at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
A new voting system isn’t the only changed aspect of this year’s council race. This is the first time in 100 years that Portlanders are electing council members by geographic district. The election also lays the groundwork for a new form of government in 2025, a plan also passed by voters in 2022, which changes the responsibilities of new councilors. Instead of overseeing city bureaus as they’ve done for decades, city councilors will solely be responsible for proposing new policies and representing their district in City Hall.
This new dynamic also creates a powerful new role: a council president. This is a councilor who will preside over council meetings and decide which legislation gets heard and voted on by the City Council. The incoming council’s first task in office will be voting to appoint its first president, meaning council president hopefuls are expected to spend the rest of 2024 lobbying the incoming council for their vote.
Here’s what we know as of 8 p.m. Tuesday.
District 1 (East Portland)
Candace Avalos and Loretta Smith were leading after numerous rounds of voting. Jamie Dunphy was next after preliminary rounds. Avalos is a nonprofit leader who previously ran for City Council. Smith is a former Multnomah County commissioner who was a longtime aide to Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden. Dunphy is a former staffer for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and the late City Commissioner Nick Fish.
District 2 (North and Northeast Portland)
City Commissioner Dan Ryan, Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Sameer Kanal were leading after preliminary rounds of vote counting in this district on Tuesday. Pirtle-Guiney is a policy and advocacy consultant and Kanal works in public safety for the city of Portland.
District 3 (Southeast Portland)
Former Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick was one of the leading candidates after preliminary rounds in this district. Novick, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo all led in this district after early rounds. Koyama Lane is a Portland teacher and Morillo is a policy advocate and legislative strategist.
District 4 (West Portland and some eastside neighborhoods)
Olivia Clark, Mitch Green and Eric Zimmerman were the leading candidates in this district, which spans from the entire west side of the Willamette River to some eastside neighborhoods like Sellwood-Moreland. Clark is a former TriMet leader and policy adviser to previous Oregon governors. Green is an economist and Zimmerman is chief of staff to Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards.
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The incoming council will also shape a new working relationship with the incoming mayor, who no longer sits on the council under the new system. As of Tuesday night, Keith Wilson was leading in early returns for Portland’s mayoral race.
The county elections office will post its next results update for city elections at 6 p.m. Wednesday.