Multnomah County gearing up to implement ranked-choice voting for local elections

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — The Multnomah County Elections Division is gearing up to transition to ranked-choice voting .

The new system is rolling out for the City of Portland elections this November and for county-wide elections in 2026. Multnomah County gave an update on Tuesday on where they’re at with the transition.

Multnomah County Elections officials said they’re testing and implementing the voting software and will conduct a large-scale testing event next week.

Though the City of Portland’s local elections will be the first to implement the ranked-choice system locally, Multnomah County Elections is in charge of issuing and counting those ballots to citizens. It’s the first time ranked-choice voting will be used in Oregon, though it’s already being used in Alaska, Maine and about 50 other local jurisdictions around the country.

An extensive voter education campaign is also underway to get people familiar with the new ballot design and how to cast your vote. This involves ranking candidates in order of preference instead of choosing only one candidate, allowing a person’s vote to count toward another candidate if the top choice gets eliminated, according to the Multnomah County Elections Division website .

Multnomah County Elections officials said the biggest voter concern at this point is how to fill out the ballots properly and how to avoid making mistakes that could affect how your vote is counted.

Officials from both the county and the City of Portland are engaging in this community education mission around ranked-choice ahead of when it will be implemented, including doing outreach at the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival this past weekend. The City of Portland even has a comic book to help people understand the transition to the city’s new form of government , including information on ranked-choice voting.

Stay tuned for a special Eye on Northwest Politics digging deeper into this topic and featuring Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott airing this Sunday, July 28, at 6 p.m. on KOIN 6 and at 4:30 p.m. on Portland’s CW as well as on KOIN.com.

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