PORTLAND, Ore. — Whether you live in Portland or not, the November election in this city should be an interesting one to watch. For better or worse, the city embarks on a grand experiment this year — electing a newly expanded city council, drawn from four all-new districts, using a form of voting that's new to the city, to then oversee a completely overhauled government.
There's been a change in timing, too. Instead of having a spring primary election to weed out the field, the city will hold a single election in November to determine all 12 of the new council members. Portland will also elect a mayor and a city auditor.
A number of people have already thrown their hats into the ring for the new council, and others are still either mulling a run or putting together campaigns.
But given the sheer number of changes this time around, The Story thought it might be worth walking through all the basic steps of what it takes to run for city council in Portland, and in a field that's more wide-open than it's ever been. We asked Deborah Scroggin, elections director for the city of Portland, to be our guide.
Scroggin has a firm grasp on everything that's happening this year, and she acknowledges that it will be both historic and complicated.
"I think this is the biggest change we've seen in recent memory," she said.
I do declare
Dozens of people have already declared that they're going to run for city council in November between the various positions. But, Scroggin clarified, none of them are officially running just yet.
"A lot of folks have said, 'Hey, I'm gonna raise money, I'm gonna file for public matching funds, I'm going to put my name in the media,' that sort of thing, which is perfectly fine," Scroggin said. "You can't actually file for office with the city elections office until June 5 — just want to let folks know that you may see names floating around, but those are not official yet, so the filing window starting June 5 will have all the information for candidates available currently in our candidate guide."
On top of that official declaration to the elections office, either through filling out a form online or visiting the city elections office in person, candidates need to pay a fee of $75 if they're running for a council seat and $100 for mayor or auditor. If the cost is too high, candidates can canvas their district for 500 signatures from registered voters saying that they want to see that person run.
"We upped the fees a little bit — they hadn't been upped since the 90s," Scroggin said. "And we changed it to 500 signatures to align better with state law. But either way, it's to show us you really want to be on the ballot, and you take this seriously."
After paying the fee or gathering signatures to register with the city elections office, staff in Scroggin's office will be making sure that candidates can legally be in the race.
"What's next is we determine if they meet all the requirements," she said. "Are you a citizen of the United States or your resident of the city of Portland? Or are you in the right district? Are you registered to vote? The requirements are laid out in our candidate guide. Again, one thing I'd like to highlight is that you really do have to be a resident of that district a year prior to the election."
Since city council members are now elected by district, candidates must have lived in the district they hope to represent as of this past November, or 12 months prior to the election.
"I would just contact us, look up your district, go to portlandmaps.com, see where you actually are," Scroggin said. "Make sure where you're moving ... Ask around. Look at look at the map and make sure you're in the right place."
Donors big and small
There's a reason why some folks have already said they're running, and it's to start gathering contributions so they can buy things like yard signs, stickers and colorful postcards that they can mail out to voters. But there are a decent number of rules governing how to go about raising funds in Portland.
Before starting to raise money, it's worth calling Portland's Small Donor Elections program to ask for a free and confidential class on how campaign finance works broadly in the city. For example, candidates can only accept a maximum of $579 from any one person, and they must be a U.S. resident age 18 or older to qualify.
But to receive support from the small donor program, candidates must agree not to take more than $350 from any one donor, and the donors must live within the city of Portland. The program was designed to encourage candidates to raise money from within the city.
"Small donor elections is in another agency in the city," Scroggin explained. "They offer public funds to run a campaign, and there's a lot of requirements to get those funds and to qualify for them. We have the basic information for that in here, but I would also encourage them to get ahold of small donor elections in the city of Portland."
Through the small donor program, the city will match $9 for every $1 raised up to $20. That means if someone gives $20 to a qualified candidate, the city will give them $180.
In order to qualify, candidates must take the small donor training. Candidates running for mayor must then collect at least 750 donations of anywhere between $5 and $350, and candidates for auditor or city council must collect 250 contributions between $5 and $350. Those qualifying contributions must also come from residents of Portland.
After meeting that threshold, the city of Portland will start doling out the matching money. Right now, candidates for mayor can get up to $100,000 in matching funds; candidates for auditor can get up to $40,000 in matching funds; and candidates for city council can get up to $120,000. Those amounts may change in the future, but that's where they are now.
Candidates don't have to take advantage of the small donor program. Those who decide not to use it can take contributions of up to $579 from anyone, whether inside the city or out. But for those who are interested, the deadline to apply is Aug. 1.
Stumping in Stumptown
The next step would be to really get a campaign going, and candidates need to know that there are requirements about the kind of disclaimers that need to accompany political advertising — more rigorous ones than we usually see on the TV ads for bigger races.
"Voters passed a law in 2018 requiring certain disclaimers on political communication. Now there's the top line, which is that 'Paid for by' ... you know, we're all kind of used to seeing that," Scroggin said. "But then, ours require even deeper — dominant funders that may be funding that campaign overall, if they're over a certain limit, they need to be disclosed there as funders."
Essentially, candidates need to be transparent about how their campaigns are being funded, disclosing any big backers on things like mailings and advertisements, but not on smaller things like signs or stickers. That's a bit complicated to unpack, but Scroggin said candidates should consult the elections office for any clarifications.
"What we really want candidates to know is that these are involved requirements to discuss how your campaign is being funded and to disclose that to the public," she said. "Voters passed that in 2018, and we're here to make sure that it is understood in advance. People can come to us with questions — we can't provide legal advice, of course, but we also have put out a campaign finance manual that has examples."
Ballots will go out in the mail on Oct. 16. Voter must have them dropped in a ballot box or postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5, in order to have them counted.
"We do think it will be one of the busiest elections in history, if not the busiest election in history in terms of candidates on the ballot," Scroggin said. "So I really want to demystify the process for everyone. It shouldn't be a surprise when you open up your ballot."
Scroggin said with so many candidates running, her office will be fielding a huge number of questions and concerns. This much change in this short amount of time can get confusing, she said — for candidates and voters alike.
The ballots alone are going to look pretty different in Portland, due to the new voting system and new multi-member districts. Voters will only see city council candidates for the district in which they live, and they'll be instructed to vote for six different people, ranking them from first to sixth. The rest is handled behind the scenes.
RELATED: Ranked choice voting is included in Portland's charter reform measure. Here's what that means
Ranked choice voting is far from untried — it's actually becoming more and more popular throughout the country — but this will be the first time it's making landfall in Portland. There's enough confusion about ranked choice voting that The Story will devote an upcoming report to that alone before ballots go out, so stay tuned.