The mayor’s race will include 19 candidates, while a whopping 98 candidates will compete for 12 seats on an expanded City Council.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19456259

For those unaware, Portland completely replaced it’s form of city government AND added ranked choice balloting at the same time.

This is the first election. Nobody is 100% sure how it’s all going to work.

Previously, we had 5 City Council seats, all elected at large, and each one in charge of certain city bureaus, with the Mayor controlling the police. None of the seats were accountable to any district in the city and the Eastern half of the city was notoriously under represented.

Now it’s going to be 3 council members each representing one of four districts in the city, voting on issues like the Senate, with the Mayor acting as a tie breaker.

Actual bureau management will be turned over to a new City Manager position.