Since 2002, 40% (12 out of 30) of Portland’s City Council members have won their elections with votes from fewer than 25% of registered voters. This is in part because many council members won their seats during primary elections, when relatively few Portland voters turn out to vote. 

Like other nonpartisan elections in Oregon, candidates for Portland City Council used to be able to win outright during a primary contest if they received more than 50% of the votes cast. Unlike candidates who did not meet the threshold, these winners could forgo the November general election.

This meant that even if most registered voters skipped the May primary, City Council members often were elected by the minority of voters who did participate.

Contests for Council Seats 2 and 3 were almost always decided in the primary and only rarely made it to the November general election. Voters elected Portland's Mayor in the primary about half of the time.

Under the changes enacted in 2024, Portland will no longer host primary elections, and will instead elect leaders using ranked choice voting during the November general election.

Since 2002, only four City Council races have been competitive. The vast majority of races have not been competitive, with the second highest vote-getter lagging more than 15 percentage points behind the number of “votes needed to win” in each race.

Competitive elections can be an indicator of a healthy democracy. Voters have diverse opinions. When a diverse field of candidates represent those opinions in compelling ways, voters see more options and more reason to participate in the electoral process. This both propels voter participation and fosters more dynamic community conversations about the issues that matter.

That said, instances of uncompetitive elections do not necessarily mean voters lacked diverse and representative options. Sometimes, candidates win by a landslide due to their sheer popularity and because their platforms resonate with many voters. Election competitiveness should therefore be analyzed in concert with other metrics, such as overall voter participation and support for winning candidates.

In Portland and across the country, voters of all ages participate in elections at lower rates during midterm years than during presidential election years. Likewise, fewer voters participate in primary elections than in general elections. 

Several factors contribute to lower turnout in primary elections:

• In Oregon, closed partisan primaries exclude more than half of all voters under the age of 40, and more than half of Latin@ voters, because both of these groups are less likely to affiliate with a political party. As a result, young and Latin@ voters will not be contacted by campaigns during primaries.

• In general, political campaigns spend less money on voter outreach during primary or special elections than during the general election in November. This means that most voters get fewer "touches" reminding them to vote or engaging them in the electoral process.

• Although local government elections are typically non-partisan races, fewer voters understand how local governments work or what local officials do. As a result, they are less likely to participate in local elections during the May primary.

Starting in 2024, Portland will no longer hold primary elections for local contests such as City Council and Mayor. Portland voters will only vote for these positions during November general elections. The Portland’s Charter Commission hoped that by eliminating primary elections, more voters would weigh-in on election outcomes.