Portland ranked-choice council race that ended in tie will be decided by chance

Election officials in Portland plan to use a decidedly low-tech method on Thursday —drawing lots — to determine the winner of a City Council seat after a ranked-choice runoff ended in a tie.

There were four candidates on the ballot for an at-large seat on the Portland City Council. But none of the four received more than 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s election, automatically triggering a ranked-choice runoff that considers voters’ second- and third-choice candidates.

Yet when a computer crunched the ranked-choice results on Wednesday, candidates Roberto Rodriguez and Brandon Mazer each ended up with 8,529 votes after the two lower-placing candidates were eliminated.

Portland's rules for ranked-choice elections states that ties must be settled "in public by lot." But the rules do not specify whether that should be a coin flip, drawing straws or another method.

Read more: https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2021-11-03/portland-ranked-choice-council-race-that-ended-in-tie-will-be-decided-by-chance