1-in-5 Portland voters did not cast vote in city council race; 1-in-10 abstain from mayoral vote

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Data from the Multnomah County Elections Office shows that many Portland voters cast their ballots for last week's election without voting in a couple of crucial races.

The FOX 12 Investigates team discovered that as of the most recent tabulations, 21%, or about one-in-five Portlanders who cast a ballot, did not vote for any city council candidates.

That equates to roughly 73,000 voters citywide.

In the mayoral race, around 13%, or more than one-in-10 voters who cast a ballot, did not vote for any of the 19 candidates. That's roughly 46,000 voters.

This comes during the city's first ranked-choice election in city council and mayoral races.

This is a change from the November 2020 election, in which at least 91% of voters who cast a ballot participated in the commissioner race, and more than 98% participated in the mayoral race, according to data from the Portland City Auditor.

Some voters we spoke to were well aware of the phenomenon this time around, crediting the drop in numbers to time constraints, lack of information, and a change in priorities.

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"I think it was just a bit of an overload, there were a lot of candidates for both," said Portland voter Casey Cookson. "It was quite hard to find information for all of the candidates...I took three extra days to fill out my ballot than I thought I was going to, just to look up everyone."

Voter Tircia Fischer said their partner was one of the voters who left her mayoral and city council options blank.

"I tried to help my partner vote and she was just overwhelmed," they said.

"I'm really concerned that a lot of people weren't very informed about the candidates and it made it hard to vote," said Fischer. "Another reason might be that there were a lot of choices and it's really hard to pick between people when there aren't clear and concise statements on what their policies are."

"City council, I will admit, I was a little bit less enthusiastic," said voter Aaron Cold. "I mean not that there's less importance there, but people weren't quite as on the trail of the information as much. The mayoral has a little bit more of a, not quite celebrity, but people are paying less attention [to the city council race]."

Dr. Michelle Neiss, the President of DHM Research, said it's a bit of an odd case, as U.S. cities that implement ranked-choice voting don't normally see this large of a drop-off in voter participation.

A normal drop might be between 2-3%, as some voter confusion is expected.

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"That suggests that it's not just ranked-choice voting perse, it's a combination of multiple factors," Neiss said.

"I think the sheer number of candidates may have generally made it difficult to find coverage about all of them...if they couldn't find a full comparison of all the candidates, that may have introduced doubt about whether they did have full information."

She said trust in news organizations has also taken a dip in recent years, and overall skepticism toward the voting process and ranked-choice could have contributed.

It's too soon to say whether this will affect Portland election numbers long-term, but despite the challenges, voters FOX 12 spoke with say they hope ranked-choice is here to stay.

"Takes some getting used to, but I think it's a great change, more opportunity to get not just one person's name on the ballot," Cold said.

FOX 12 reached out to the Multnomah County Elections Office, and representatives said there are only a few thousand outstanding ballots left to process before the results are certified on Dec. 2.

They said they are making sure every ballot is counted accurately, and they plan to release a full analysis on voter engagement in about a month.