Victoria Pelletier Wins District 2
The City has released the unofficial results as of Wednesday morning, November 3rd and Victoria Pelletier is victorious. Pelletier wins with 56% of the vote against Jon Hinck with 38%. Pelletier will become the next city councilor-elect for the West End, Parkside, St. John-Valley, and Oakdale neighborhoods. The seat is currently vacant. Spencer Thibodeau stepped down to pursue a position in the Biden administration. He previously announced he would not seek reelection.
Pelletier Wins – Learn more about the candidate
Read Pelletier’s responses to WEN’s candidate questionnaire here. Also, read a campaign letter Pelletier wrote to WEN readers here.
City Announces Tie in At-Large Council Race
After all the rounds of the ranked choice runoff, Mazer and Rodriguez receive the exact same number of votes. The City Clerk will draw lots to determine a winner tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall
The outcome of the Portland At-Large City Council race is still up in the air. After working through the process for tabulating ranked choice ballots outlined in the City’s Charter with the assistance of Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the unofficial results indicate a numeric tie between candidates Brandon Mazer and Roberto Rodriguez.
Because none of the four candidates received more than 50% of the vote, ES&S conducted a ranked choice voting runoff in accordance with the City’s rules to determine a winner. ES&S confirmed and reconfirmed the result. It is officially a tie, not a statistical tie, but an actual tie with both candidates receiving 8,529 votes each.
Under the City’s Charter and the rules adopted for how to administer ranked-choice voting, in the case of a tie, “the City Clerk shall determine the winner in public by lot” (a method of deciding by choosing something, often slips of paper, at random). The City’s rules were adopted in 2011 in conjunction with the Charter amendments adopting ranked-choice voting.
The City informed the two candidates of the tie and the method that the rules provide for determining a winner. City Clerk Kathy Jones will conduct the public drawing by lot tomorrow, Thursday, November 4th, at 10:00 a.m. on the Ganley Plaza in front of City Hall.
The City released the unofficial election results around 1:00 AM on November 3rd. They can be viewed here.
Other Results
Anna Trevorrow won District 1 City Council with 49.74% of vote in unofficial results released early Wednesday morning. Abusana Bondo won school board District 1 with 70% of vote in an unopposed race. Similarly, Emily Figdor won reelection to District 2 school board with 72% in an unopposed race.
For school board at-large, Nyalat Billiew won with 44% of the vote against Sara Thompson (40%). The incumbent and a former Chair of the board, Thompson publicly withdrew from the race although she could not withdraw her name from the ballot.
Referendum Results – Portland homeless shelters
The amendment to city code that all shelters be open 24-hours and provide shelter for no more than 50 people failed at the ballot box. The citizen proposal to cap shelters at 50 beds received only 31% of the vote, and the council proposal to cap beds at 150 failed with 28%. With the most support (41%), Option C to not amend city code passed. This clears the way for a large shelter to be built on the outskirts of the city.
Finally, Portland voters roundly rejected the CMP corridor. Yes on 1 received 59% of the vote in Portland. The question passed in the statewide vote.
