A week after Election Day, we round up the region’s ballot measures and ranked choice contests.

What a week! Tons of elections results have already come in, and a few more contests are yet to be decided. While every race on the ballot is important, let’s focus on how some of Cascadia’s democracy-related ballot measures and elected offices turned out in the midterm elections.

No results are final until election officials certify the counts over the next month, but after a week of counting, preliminary results are pretty close to where they’ll end up. And in many cases, the margins of victory are large enough that observers such as the Associated Press and the Oregonian are confident in the winners despite some ballots left to count.

EXTENSIVE CHANGE FOR PORTLAND’S GOVERNMENT

After eight failed attempts in a century, voters approved a comprehensive change to Portland’s charter last week. At the time of writing, 58 percent of voters supported measure 26-228, the first change to the city’s government and elections systems since 1913. As part of this change, Portland will move away from its unusual commission form of government, create a larger city council with four districts each electing three members, and implement ranked choice voting for choosing city officials (including proportional ranked choice voting for each council district). For more details about the changes, check out our FAQ written before the election.

The city has already hit the ground running on implementing these changes. In 2023, an appointed districting committee will conduct research and community outreach to draw the four council districts. Applications are open now for Portlanders interested in serving on the committee, and other opportunities for engagement will be available soon. A separate salary committee will be appointed to decide compensation for the new elected officials (removing that role from city council). Finally, a general transition advisory committee will oversee and guide the city’s work to enact this ballot measure over the coming years.

The first election under the new system will occur in November 2024, when every elected position (the mayor, the auditor, and 12 councilmembers) will be contested. The new system of government goes into effect when these officials take office in January 2025, though some things will start changing in the next two years of transition. Mayor Ted Wheeler has already announced his intention to reorganize bureau assignments and get a jump-start on how departments might be run under the new city manager system. Sightline will continue to research and publish about implementation details during the transition period.

RANKED CHOICE VOTING FOR SEATTLE PRIMARIES

As more ballots are received and counted, it looks like ranked choice voting will be coming to Seattle as well. Just over 50 percent of voters wanted to see a change to the city’s primary elections, and fully three quarters of voters preferred that the change be ranked choice voting instead of approval voting. Seattleites will likely see ranking options on their primary ballots in August 2025, according to Sightline’s analysis.

While the city isn’t allowed to get rid of its top-two primary due to statewide rules, this vote from Washington’s largest city could be the push the state legislature needs to pass a bill that would allow localities to implement ranked choice voting in its full form—that is, not just for primary elections as in Seattle but in general elections, too.

CASCADIAN COUNTIES SPLIT ON RANKED CHOICE VOTING

Multnomah County, Oregon’s largest and home to the city of Portland, supported changing to ranked choice voting by more than a two-to-one margin. This makes Multnomah the second county in Oregon to use the system, after Benton County adopted it in 2016.

Farther north, however, two Washington counties voted against changing their elections to use to ranked choice voting. Right across the Columbia River from Portland and Multnomah County...