Multnomah County Elections staff have completed what’s believed to be the nation’s first-ever test hand recount of a multi-winner ranked-choice voting contest — another step in a lengthy series of preparations for Nov. 5, 2024, when the voting method makes its debut on City of Portland ballots.
The test hand count provided a chance to practice and refine a recount procedure that could be adopted by other jurisdictions using ranked-choice voting across the country. Under Oregon law, any contest decided by no more than one fifth of a percentage point must be recounted by hand.
Voters will be able to rank up to six candidates for City Council in order of preference, with the top three recipients declared the winners. Unlike single-winner contests, candidates only need 25% plus one of the total votes cast to reach the threshold for election. The state’s recount process would come into play based on the size of the gap between the third- and fourth-place candidates.
“We want to make sure we're ready,” said Leah Benson, ranked choice voting project manager for Multnomah County Elections. “We also want to test out the hardest possible things with ranked choice voting, just to make sure that we're stress-testing how we're preparing…. Our goal is to perfect this and then be able to share it.”
‘Complicated choreography’
Over five days, from July 28 through Aug. 1, a total of 50 people — including Elections staff, partners from other jurisdictions and national experts — organized and counted thousands of sample ballots to simulate a Portland City Council contest recount.
Taking hours to do what the County’s tabulation software can do in moments, participants worked at specially marked tables in teams of four and sorted ballots into stacks based on which sample candidate was marked as the first choice. Participants then counted the stacks and eliminated the lowest vote-getter, distributing their votes to the next-ranked candidates on their ballots.
“What that looks like is this complicated choreography of us spreading out all of the many thousands of ballots on a table, in a carefully constructed grid,” Benson said, “and sorting them to make sure that we can see exactly who voted for which candidate.”
This process continued round after round, with adjustments made as sample candidates reached the threshold for election. When that happened, using color-coded folders and simple arithmetic, participants were able to distribute what are known as surplus votes from the winners to remaining candidates.
A real recount, with close to 100,000 ballots, would take much longer. But the procedures and practices would generally be the same.
“There's a lot of conversation about how multi-winner ranked-choice voting is so mathematically complicated and really difficult to comprehend, and I won't deny it's complex,” Benson said. “But this process shows that we just need really basic calculators and people who understand basic arithmetic to be able to fully calculate a multi-winner ranked choice contest. And that's really cool.”
‘We’re proving it is possible’: Experts participate and observe
Participants and observers included staff and leadership from the City of Portland, which created the policies governing ranked-choice voting for Portland contests. Staff also attended from Clackamas County, Washington County, the state of Oregon and King County (Washington).
In addition, experts from the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, which created the tabulation software that Multnomah County will use for the fall election, played a crucial role.
“We're proving it is possible to hand count these sorts of elections, but we're also proving it's not fast,” said Chris Hughes, the center’s senior director of policy. “If the election happened tomorrow, it would feel hectic. There would be a lot of pressure, but I think it would go well.”
“I want people to know we are ready,” Benson said. “This is the most difficult challenge that we could have imagined — doing a hand recount of a ranked choice voting contest with multiple winners. It's going to be hard if we need to do one in real life. But we're ready.”
Background on ranked-choice voting
Contests for Portland Mayor, Portland Auditor and the Portland City Council will all be decided by ranked-choice voting this fall. Multnomah County elections will switch to ranked-choice voting for County candidate contests in November 2026. Voters approved the voting method as part of charter reform amendments placed on the ballot in 2022.
Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference instead of choosing only one candidate. This method allows someone’s vote to count toward another candidate if their favorite candidate is eliminated. Portland voters will be able to rank up to six candidates.
Most of what Portland voters will experience this fall will be the same as in past elections.
Ballots will continue to arrive in the mail. Voters will still be able to mail in their ballots, place them in approved drop boxes or bring them directly to Multnomah County Elections. And voters will still be able to seek information, help and other resources from County Elections staff.
But ballots in the City of Portland will look different. Candidate contests will now feature a grid that allows voters to rank up to six candidates in order of preference. Voters will still fill in ovals to mark their selections, but now they’ll have more choices.
Voters should pick the candidate they like most for “Rank 1,” pick the candidate they like second-best for “Rank 2,” and then do the same for ranks 3 through 6..
If voters make an error when marking their ballots — either skipping a rank or filling in more than one candidate for a rank — they can correct their ballots by writing an “X” over a mistaken oval or contacting Multnomah County Elections to receive a replacement ballot.
And if you want to practice on a sample ballot this summer, before official ballots arrive in the fall, click here or go to MultnomahVotes,gov!
Source: Multnomah County Elections