- A copy of Elections’ Ballot Data Report is here.
Multnomah County Elections has released a detailed data report showing how voters in the City of Portland engaged with their ranked-choice voting ballots in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election — the first city election to feature the new voting style.
The report — derived from the official cast vote record, certified Dec. 2 — examines and compares results from citywide candidate contests, for mayor and auditor, and also from within individual Portland City Council districts.
For each of those contests, the report provides data tables on:
- Overall turnout
- Undervotes (when someone chooses not to mark their ballot for any candidates in a particular contest)
- Specific ranked-choice voting errors such as marking more than one candidate per rank (overvotes) or marking the same candidate across two or more ranks (repeat rankings)
- How many ranks voters used in a particular contest
The report notes roughly 71% of City of Portland voters overall returned their ranked-choice voting ballot sheet, compared to nearly 75% who returned their non-ranked-choice ballot sheet.
Ranked-choice participation, however, was lower among voters in the City’s new District 1, which includes east Portland and has the fewest registered voters of the four. Turnout has historically been lower in east Portland and east Multnomah County, when compared to other parts of the community. And both areas have been a longtime focus of voter education, engagement and equity programs, including in the most recent election.
In November 2024, just 55% of District 1 voters turned in a ranked-choice ballot with markings for at least one ranked-choice contest, compared to participation rates that ranged from 74% to 77% for the other three districts.
Voters in District 1 were also more likely than voters in other districts to skip voting in their City Council contest. Under charter changes approved by City of Portland voters in 2022, voters can rank up to six candidates from each district in order of preference, with the top three vote recipients declared winners.
Nearly 21% of voters ranked zero candidates for City Council in District 1, followed by nearly 16% in District 4, 13% in District 3 and nearly 12% in District 2.
District 1 voters were also more likely to have marked more than one candidate in a given rank and more likely to have marked the same candidate in more than one rank.
The report does not include any analysis of voters’ decisions on voter participation or ballot marking.
The data tables, however, largely match with prior media reports and echo survey results recently released by the City of Portland’s Election Division.
While 91% of Portland voters overall said they understood ranked-choice voting somewhat or very well, voters in District 1 were slightly less likely than voters in other districts to report a clear understanding of how ranked-choice voting works.
With single-winner ranked-choice voting expanding to Multnomah County contests in 2026, the Multnomah County Elections Division will work with its partners, including the City of Portland, to continue analyzing data and workflow processes for the November 2024 election.
Elections will also work closely with the City to continue seeking opportunities to strengthen both governments’ ongoing work around voter education, equity and engagement.
“This data informs our planning, and that planning will help us better serve voters across our County with the information and resources they need to make decisions about their ballots,” Elections Director Tim Scott said. “We will continue to focus our voter education efforts around equity and build our ongoing work and strategy shared with the City of Portland.”
