City Code Section
(Amended by Ordinance 191973, effective January 1, 2025.)
- A. Active ballot means any ballot that is not an inactive ballot.
- B. Active candidate means any candidate who has not been defeated or elected.
- C. City Elections Officer means the City official in charge of elections for the City.
- D. County elections officer means the county clerk or the county official in charge of elections for a particular county.
- E. District means one of the four geographic areas within Portland where voters vote to fill three Councilor seats.
- F. Elector means an individual qualified to vote under Section 2, Article II, Oregon Constitution.
- G. Highest-ranked active candidate means the active candidate a voter has assigned to a higher ranking than any other active candidate in the contest being tallied, excluding overvotes. Overvotes do not indicate a clear and unmistakable ranking for any particular candidate. Therefore, an overvote may not be interpreted as a ranking of any of the overvoted candidates.
- H. Inactive ballot means a ballot that, in any round of tabulation, does not count for any candidate. A ballot becomes inactive for the contest being tallied at the point any one of the following is true:
- 1. In any round after the first round, the ballot no longer contains any votes for any active candidates for the contest being tallied.
- 2. In any round, the ballot has reached an overvote for the contest being tallied and there are no lower-ranked active candidates on the ballot that are not also overvotes.
- I. Overvote means a voter has ranked more than one candidate at the same ranking in the same contest. For example, a ballot has an overvote if a voter assigns two candidates the number 1 ranking in the same contest.
- J. Ranking is the number available to be assigned by a voter to a candidate to express the voter’s choice for that candidate. The number 1 is the highest available ranking, followed by 2, and then 3 and so on.
- K. Skipped ranking means a voter has left a ranking or multiple consecutive rankings unassigned in a contest but ranked a candidate at a subsequent ranking in that contest. For example, a ballot has a skipped ranking if a voter assigns a candidate the number 1 ranking, skips the number 2 ranking, and assigns a candidate the number 3 ranking. A ballot also has a skipped ranking if a voter assigns a candidate the number 1 ranking, skips the number 2 and number 3 rankings, and assigns a candidate the number 4 ranking.
- L. Undervote means a ballot that does not contain a marking for any candidate at any ranking in a contest. For example, a ballot has an undervote for the mayoral contest if a voter does not rank any candidate for Mayor.