portland votes, data speaks: insights from portland’s first rcv election
Last November marked a new chapter for Portland, as voters used ranked choice voting for the first time to elect our Mayor and City Council—now serving in newly re-imagined roles under a fresh system of government.
While we’re still uncovering what these shifts mean in practice for our community, valuable insights are beginning to emerge thanks to the dedicated work of volunteer researchers, scholars, community members, and civic organizations.
On June 30th of 2025, we asked one of those groups, the Data and Democracy Lab, to join us for a briefing to share what they had learned from their deep dive on Portland’s November city council election. They shared what they had learned about representation, proportionality, ballot errors, and voter participation, exploring questions like:
Does the elected city council generally reflect voter preferences?
Were voters of color able to elect candidates of choice?
How many ballot errors did voters make?
Passcode: @Rt7$F8v
Their results? “Overall, we find that STV delivered strikingly well on its promise of better proportionality for the voters of Portland.”
Interested in reading their full report? We’ve linked it below:
