The Small Donor Elections program is implemented exclusively by the Portland Elections Commission. The commission's existence and role is included in the City Charter. It meets monthly and operates under these bylaws:
Members of the public apply through an open process, and are voted on by the Portland City Council. Click here to apply.
The minutes from the Portland Elections Commissions monthly meetings can be found by clicking here.
Members of the Portland Elections Commission:
Chair: Amy Sample Ward
Amy is the CEO of NTEN, a Portland-based capacity-building nonprofit that ensures missions and movements are successful through the skillful and equitable use of technology. Amy is driven by a belief that organizations and communities can work together as movement-based forces for positive change. With prior experience in direct service, policy, philanthropy, and capacity-building organizations, Amy creates meaningful, inclusive, and compassionate community engagement and educational opportunities for organizations around the world.
Amy's most recent book is "The Tech That Comes Next: How Changemakers, Philanthropists, and Technologists Can Build an Equitable World" co-authored with Afua Bruce. Their previous books include Social Change Anytime Everywhere (published in 2013), co-authored with Allyson Kapin, which was a Terry McAdam Book Award finalist, and Social by Social (published in 2010).
Vice Chair: Anahi Segovia Rodriguez
Immigrating from Mexico at a young age, Anahi was raised and continues to live in Southeast Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science - Public Service, and a minor in Civic Leadership; inspired for public service at a young age after seeing and experiencing the institutional barriers that her community had to break through.
In college, Anahi worked with HOLLA Mentors and SUN Schools to provide youth mentoring for students of minority, and low-income communities.
Anahi has had the privilege of completing internships with U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer and State Senator Jeff Golden. She also served as the Campaign Manager for Nolan For Metro and currently serves as State Representative Maxine Dexter's Legislative Assistant at the Oregon State Legislature.
Commissioner: Adam Briggs
Adam brings over twenty years of experience working in politics to the Portland Elections Commission, with over a decade here in Portland. This includes direct work with candidate based campaigns for Portland City Council that have utilized the Small Donor Election program, and issue based campaigns including Oregon United for Marriage and Renew Oregon. He has also advocated for candidates on behalf of Political Advocacy groups including NARAL Pro Choice Oregon. Adam’s background includes, crafting and technology based targeting of campaign messaging, recruitment and development of campaign staff and volunteers, and data collection and tracking.
Commissioner: Amy Ruiz
Amy brings the experience and leadership of a 15-year career in journalism, communications and campaign direction to Strategies 360’s communications team, offering strong tactical and strategic messaging counsel.
Amy joined S360 after serving as deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Oregon United for Marriage Campaign, as well as campaign manager for the 2014 Portland Parks Replacement Bond campaign, which passed with record-high support for a Portland parks funding measure.
Previously, she served as chief of staff and communications director to Portland Mayor Sam Adams. Her strong working relationships with Pacific Northwest reporters and editors stem from her experience as a news editor at the Portland Mercury and reporter for The Stranger in Seattle.
Commissioner: Kevin Neely
Kevin brings to the Portland Elections Commission expertise in campaign fundraising, campaign finance compliance, and technology. He formerly was a co-owner of C&E Systems, a small business specializing in political campaign fundraising, campaign finance compliance, government relations, and software development. He currently serves as Vice President of University Relations at Portland State University, where he received his B.S. in Biology in 1996. Prior to his work at C&E Systems, he served as the spokesman and lead lobbyist for the Oregon Department of Justice. He volunteers to expand access to post-secondary education in Oregon’s prisons.
Commissioner: Norman Turrill
Beginning in 2001 in the Portland Oregon League, Norman was active in Voter Service and coordinated DNet, which was the precursor to the League’s VOTE411.org website. He was a member of the Portland Board for 2002-03 and represented Portland at the LWVUS Conventions in 2002 and 2004. He later joined Portland’s Action Committee and helped successfully lobby for Voter Own Elections and Lobby Disclosure ordinances for the City of Portland.
Norman joined the LWV of Oregon state board in 2004 and served as Voter Service Co-chair. He then joined the state Action Committee and was appointed its Vice-chair and Campaign Finance Chair. Representing the League, he helped organize the Oregon Building Better Campaigns (BBC) coalition and was elected as its interim chair. In 2004, he was appointed by Secretary of State Bill Bradbury to his Campaign Finance Disclosure Panel, which eventually led to the 2005 Oregon legislature instituting the ORESTAR online continuous campaign disclosure system. In 2005, he was elected as the state League’s First Vice President, was re-elected in 2007 and served as Action Chair. Representing the Oregon League, he attended the LWVUS 2006, 2008, 2016 and 2018 Conventions and the 2005, 2007 and 2017 Councils.
As a member of the LWV of the US Board between 2008 and 2014, he is the first man to ever serve on the national board. Norman served as Technology Chair, Program Chair and Bylaws Chair. He oversaw the development of a new website for LWV.org and the new VOTE411.org website for voter information. He organized the League Geeks volunteers to aid members with their use of the League’s various computer systems, and the Clearinghouse Committee for sharing League study and other documents at clearinghouse.lwv.org.
From 2015 to 2019, Norman was elected as President of the LWV of Oregon, and since 2019 he has been the President of the LWV of Oregon Advocacy Fund and Governance Coordinator for the LWV of Oregon. During this period, he organized the Redistricting Matters coalition, which had some minor success lobbying the Oregon legislature for more hearings during the coming redistricting of state and congressional districts. That coalition evolved into the People Not Politicians coalition that is now sponsoring the Initiative Petition 57. Norman is the campaign Chair and a Chief Petitioner.
Norman has lobbied for campaign finance reform since the 1970s. During the 2019 legislative session representing the League, he helped lobby for SJR 18, which will now be on the November 2020 ballot.
Norman has MS degrees in Chemistry and Computer Science from University of Washington. He is a retired computer analyst/software engineer. When doing nothing else, he enjoys skiing and singing in his church choir.
Commissioner: Cristina Nieves
Cristina Nieves has dedicated her career to ensuring equitable access to government and democratic processes. While working in the Office of Commissioner Amanda Fritz, she helped craft the Small Donor Elections Code and supported its initial implementation, gaining first hand insight into the program’s intentions, values, and challenges.
With a background in Political Science, and Conflict Resolution, Cristina understands the importance of balancing different perspectives while ensuring transparency in election policies.
In her free time, Cristina enjoys spending time in Portland’s parks and attending community art shows, musicals, or plays.
Commissioner: James Ofsink
James has been engaged in Portland’s democracy-enhancement community for over 15 years, serving in volunteer leadership roles on the boards of the League of Women Voters of Portland and Portland Forward, as well as with City Club of Portland and Hack Oregon. He has worked on multiple campaigns, including as Treasurer for a Small Donor Elections qualifying campaign. From 2016 to 2023 James represented the residents of Multnomah County on the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission, an independent body that review and provides citizen budgetary oversight of the 43 governments with a majority of taxpayers in Multnomah County. James served as a Multnomah County Public Financing Implementation Advisory Committee Member from late 2024 through April 2025 where he helped produce recommendations for the county to begin a public financing program. Professionally, he works in information technology at Oregon Health & Science University.