In 2022, Portland and Multnomah County voters approved ballot measures to use ranked-choice voting to elect officials in city of Portland and Multnomah County contests. Portland voters have used the system before to elect new city council members, but this is the first time people outside city limits will use ranked choice voting. Multnomah County Ranked Choice Voting Project manager Leah Benson shared what you need to know with OPB’s Morning Edition host Jess Hazel ahead of the midterms.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Jess Hazel: What is ranked choice voting and how will it change what voters’ ballots look like?

Leah Benson: Ranked choice voting is a style of voting that allows voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference instead of selecting only one. You’ll have columns on your ballot instead of just one row of choices. You’ll have columns for rank one through rank six. Voters will be invited to fill in one oval in that rank one column for their favorite candidate. Then [voters] have the option to rank additional candidates to represent their backup choices.

Hazel: And how has your office been preparing for the countywide rollout of this voting system?

Benson: In 2024, we used ranked choice voting for the first time to elect city of Portland contests. So we did a lot to prepare for that first ranked-choice voting election, making sure that we had software that could scan and tabulate ranked-choice voting contests and that we knew how to present the results. Coming into this first election that goes countywide using ranked choice voting, we’re able to build off of so much of the work that we had done in 2024. Our main focus this year is doing outreach to east Multnomah County to make sure that voters are ready to receive these ballots in the mail and fill them out confidently.

Hazel: How will ranked choice voting impact the way results are tallied and then shared with the public?

Benson: Results for ranked choice voting contests will only be available through the county’s website. The way that ranked choice voting contests are counted is in what we call rounds. In contests with one winner, what we’re looking for is for one candidate to receive a majority of the vote, so over 50%. If one does, the election’s over. If a candidate does not receive over 50% of the vote, then what we do is we defeat the candidate with the fewest number of votes and transfer all of their votes to each of their voters’ next highest ranked choice, until we have a candidate that reaches over 50%.

Because of this, results look different. The good news though, is even though there’s a lot more detail and they look different, people can still expect to see results posted at 8 p.m. on election night, just as with all other election results. What you’ll see is the full data that shows all of the ballots that we’ve received, scanned, counted and tabulated up until that point. People will be able to see which candidate is in the lead and how they got there.

Hazel: What if someone opens their ballot and they’re just completely lost? Where can they find more information or help figuring out how to use ranked choice voting?

Benson: If people open their ballots and they don’t feel confident enough to put pen to paper, that’s fine. We are here to help. If you call 311 from any line in the county, you’ll be connected with wonderful staff who are there to answer any questions that you might have about filling out your ballot. We also encourage folks to visit our website, multco.us/RCV. That gives you information about how to fill out a ballot, and crucially, has a video that shows you how to fill out a ballot and links to practice using a mock election, where you can do things like select your favorite Multnomah County natural area or the best Portland sports team.

So there are multiple opportunities for you to practice using ranked choice voting. You can come to our office at 11th Avenue and Morrison Street in Southeast Portland—or to our satellite location in Gresham, the Voting Center Express at the East County Building to get support in person.

Also, one thing I want to make sure folks know is if you make a mistake as you’re filling out your ballot, it’s OK. You can correct mistakes on your own ballot. What you can do is just make a large and obvious X through any oval that you filled in that you don’t want counted. We’ll make sure that your ballot is counted as intended. We understand that this is a new system. and it can be hard to wrap your mind around. We’re here to support in any way we can.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/20/election-2026-portland-oregon-multnomah-ranked-choice-voting/