Mock elections are a fun way to learn Portland's new voting method for city contests, ranked-choice voting. Rank your favorite tree species in Urban Forestry’s free yard tree program, your favorite ways to get around Portland, and favorite Kate’s Ice Cream flavors for a sweet surprise at our voter education town halls.
Practice ranking your vote with these three mock elections
Rank your favorite ice cream and get ready for our voter education town halls
Join us for a community town hall and learn more about ranked-choice voting! You will be able to ask questions and participate in a mock election! The town halls will offer Spanish translation and American Sign Language interpretation, and there will be two in-person and two virtual options to ensure everyone can participate.
Get ready for the in-person town halls by taking this mock election! We’ll have Kate’s Ice Cream (one scoop per person) available and will determine the flavors served based on the results of this mock election.
Rank your favorites by September 16!
Understanding multi-winner elections through ice cream
Thismulti-winner mock election shows how three city council representatives will be elected in each district.
Three ice cream flavors will need to reach the threshold, currently 45 votes or over 25% of the total votes cast to win and be featured flavors at our voter education town halls. Each round, the ice cream flavor with the least number of votes will be eliminated and votes for that flavor will shift to voters’ next favorite flavor.
Let’s take a closer look at round 7, where we see that mint chocolate chip is the closest to winning with 39 votes and cookie dough has the least number of votes with 23.
In round 8, cookie dough is eliminated so we look at the next flavor ranked by the 23 voters and shift their vote over. Six of cookie dough’s votes are reallocated to mint chocolate chip – showing us that 6 voters ranked mint chocolate in their next rank. Addingthese 6 votes gets mint chocolate chip to the magic number (45 votes) and we have our first winner in a multi-winner election! However, we still need two more winners.
In round 9, java chip is eliminated because it has the fewest number of votes with 26 votes and triple chocolate brownie is closest to the threshold (45 votes) with 44 votes. Eight of java chip’s 26 votes are shifted over to triple chocolate brownie as they were those voters’ next choice which puts it over the threshold with 52 votes.
Surplus votes
When an option goes over the threshold, we have an additional step where we also redistribute a portion of the surplus votes.
In this example, triple chocolate brownie has received 7 more votes than it needed to win. A fraction of each of the 52 votes for triple chocolate brownie will now move to the choice those individual voters ranked next, leaving triple chocolate brownie with exactly the threshold in votes. The exact equation used in Portland’s form of ranked-choice voting is available in ourtabulation frequently asked questions section
Here, it means that everyone who ranked triple chocolate brownie will have a fraction of their vote go to their next highest ranked options, marionberry cobbler and pistachio. Marionberry receives four votes, putting it over the threshold with 46 votes and making it the third winner.
Watch some videos to further understand multi-winner ranked-choice voting
Rank your favorite tree species
Earlier this month we partnered with Urban Forestry to promote their 2024 Yard Tree Giveaway program. Their2024 interest form is currently open, and you can view the tree species available for this year on their website: Portland.Gov/Trees.
Program registration opens soon, but you can rank your favorite tree species available this year in the meantime.
Rank your favorite ways to get around Portland and join us at Sunday Parkways
Our friends at Sunday Parkways and PBOT are helping us spread the word about ranked-choice voting! Take this transportation themed mock election to get ready for the Sept. 22 Sunday Parkways event and find voter education materials at a few booths across the event.
Stop by the Auditor’s Office and 311’s tables to pick up a copy of our Guide to Portland’s Government Transition comic or ask questions about ranked-choice voting.