What Portlanders should expect on election night

There are fourteen elected positions up for grabs in the city of Portland on election night this Tuesday – that's the turnover of all the city's executives. The positions include 12 city council seats, mayor and city auditor. All 14 of these positions will be determined through ranked-choice voting in this election. Therefore, election night results will look a little different this year than in previous years.

Here's a guide to what to expect on election night.

8 p.m. Tuesday, November 5th: The Multnomah County Elections Division will release a ranked-choice voting report containing the preliminary results of all 14 races, including all four city council districts and mayor. These are the early votes that go through a computer to process the ranking of votes on each ballot.

The report (an example of which can be found here) works as if the votes counted at that point were all votes cast. That means votes will be redistributed in rounds until three candidates in each City Council district reach the 25% plus 1 threshold needed to provisionally win a seat.

The same goes for the mayor's race: Tuesday night's report counts the votes and redistributes them accordingly so that a candidate reaches the 50% plus 1 vote threshold.

Consider: The candidates who cross the threshold in Tuesday night's report are not necessarily the winners. In fact, a lot can change as more votes are counted and the elections department redeposits the results in later reports.

On Wednesday evening and in the following days, the elections department will produce a report once a day reflecting the additional votes counted. In each daily report, the results are recalculated using the same vote redistribution process until three candidates reach the 25% plus 1 threshold for the municipal elections and one candidate exceeds the 50% plus 1 threshold for the mayoral election.

Unlike elections in previous cycles, the city council and mayoral elections later Tuesday evening will not have updated results. The only results voters will see Tuesday night for the city election will come from the individual report. For statewide and legislative elections, you'll see the usual updates later on election night.

As of Monday morning, the elections department reported that 43% of registered voters' ballots had been received. These ballots are expected to be included in the first report.

6 p.m. Wednesday, November 6th (or earlier in the day): The Elections Division will release a second report with all updated results. Again, the report will count votes in rounds until candidates cross the threshold needed to provisionally secure a seat.

Again, the top candidates crossing the threshold could change in the coming days as more reports are produced.

The reports are published here. Use the arrows in the reports to go to previous rounds and see how votes were redistributed.

6 p.m. Thursday, November 7th: The elections department will prepare another RCV report. At this point, over 85% of the votes cast are expected to have been counted. That means the results in Thursday's report, while not final, will provide a better idea of ​​who the winners will be.

Monday, December 2nd: The results of the city races have been determined. While the winners are expected to be chosen next weekend, it won't be official until next month.

Visit wweek.com on election night for updates on all city, county, state and congressional races.