Updated ballot counts solidify early lead for 12 Portland City Council candidates

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Newly counted ballots show a more definitive lead for the 12 Portland City Council candidates who were in the lead in Tuesday’s initial election results.

The updated count at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday shows a lead for both Portlanders familiar with local government and political newcomers, with an age range between 28 and 70 years old. We’ll break down those leaders below.

This is the first time voters are using ranked choice voting to elect council members in Portland. This system, approved by voters in 2022, lets voters rank their choices by preference. Candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated after each round, and their votes are redistributed to voters’ next choices.

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 25% plus one of their district’s votes to win. Votes aren’t just distributed from losing candidates. When candidates pass that 25% threshold, a percentage of all votes that the winner earned is distributed to their voters’ next choice.

This means there are no margins of victory in the council races – only three candidates who win 25% plus one of the total vote will secure a seat in City Hall.

It’s not certain that the leaders in tonight’s second ballot count update will hold. That’s because Multnomah County, which oversees city elections, anticipates receiving at least 115,000 more ballots this election cycle. Elections staff will recalculate ballots using the ranked choice system when new ballots are tallied. The county will release an update at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Here’s what we know as of 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.

District 1 (East Portland)

Nonprofit leader Candace Avalos was the first to cross the 25% vote threshold in District 1. She was joined by Loretta Smith, a former Multnomah County Commissioner, and Jamie Dunphy, a government relations director for the American Cancer Society and former City Hall advisor.

District 2 (North and Northeast Portland)

City Commissioner Dan Ryan was the first to cross the 25% vote threshold in District 2. By the end of the count, policy consultant Elana Pirtle-Guiney and former city public safety staffer Sameer Kanal were also across the line.

District 3 (Southeast Portland)

Former Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick crossed the 25% threshold after the initial count of all first-ranked candidates for this district. In later rounds, he was accompanied by Portland teacher Tiffany Koyama Lane and policy advocate Angelita Morillo.

District 4 (West Portland and some Southeast neighborhoods)

Similar to Novick, candidate Olivia Clark passed the ballot threshold in the first count of first-ranked candidates for District 4. Economist Mitch Green and Multnomah County Commissioner staffer Eric Zimmerman collected enough votes to secure the other top ranks.