PORTLAND BALLOT 2023
Mark Dion will be Portland’s next Mayor
By Tony Zeli
City Councilor Mark Dion hangs on after five rounds of ranked choice ballot counting to win Portland’s mayoral race with 51.5% of the vote. City Councilor Andrew Zarro came in a close second. He was the only candidate remaining after all the rounds of tabulation with 48.5% of the vote.
1st Round, No Majority Winner
On election day, Tuesday, November 7th, 2023, City Councilor Mark Dion took the largest amount of the vote. But in a ranked choice race with five candidates, Dion only had 38.5% of the total. City Council Andrew Zarro had gained the next most votes with 25.7% of the first round total. Of interest, Mayor Kate Snyder, who chose not to run for reelection, endorsed both Mark Dion and Andrew Zarro as her first and second choices, respectively.
Ranked Choice Tabulation
With no one winning a majority, the next morning, Wednesday, November 8th, at 10 a.m. in City Hall, officials tabulated through five rounds, eliminating the least popular candidate with each round. The first candidate eliminated was write-in George Rheault whose 100 votes did not make much of a mark. Next, newcomer Dylan Pugh was eliminated. His 934 votes also did not make a splash. Next, Justin Costa was eliminated and his 1861 votes were redistributed fairly even between the remaining candidates. But Dion was still hanging on to the lead over fellow Councilors Andrew Zarro and Pious Ali.
Next, Ali was eliminated. Though most (54%) of Ali’s votes went to Zarro, it wasn’t enough to topple the leader. Dion received enough of Ali’s vote (22%) to hang on and finally gain the needed majority. Ultimately, Mayor-elect Mark Dion won with 10,750 of the remaining votes to Zarro’s 10,107.
Learn who else will serve with Mayor-elect Mark Dion on the Portland City Council. View city council election results here.
