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| |  | Ballot box, Oregon-style. (Rachel Monahan / City Cast Portland) |
| Fill Out Your Ballot | We are one week out from the election, and by now, registered voters should have their ballots in hand. Do you know who (or what) you’re voting for? Don’t worry! Over the last couple months, the City Cast Portland podcast has interviewed candidates in some of the biggest races to help you decide. | | Before we get into it, find your nearest ballot drop box. Unless you’re planning to drop your ballot in the mail today, Oregon’s Secretary of State recommends voters use a drop box to avoid delays. Regardless of how you return your ballot, use BallotTrax to track its progress and confirm receipt. [Oregon Secretary of State / Oregon Capital Chronicle] | | - Governor’s race: Incumbent Democrat Tina Kotek is facing off (again) with state Sen. Christine Drazan for the state’s top job. We spoke to Kotek and Drazan about their priorities, asking Kotek why the heck she still wants this job, and Drazan whether a vote for her is a vote for Trump. [City Cast Portland 🎧 / Instagram]
- County chair: Three candidates are vying to be Multnomah County chair, all with county council experience. We asked a series of lightning-round questions, including who they’d rank second on their own ballot for the position and where they would cut to fill budget gaps. [City Cast Portland 🎧 / Instagram]
- City Council District 3: Twenty-one people (you read that right) hope to snag one of three seats in District 3. We interviewed six of them — those with the most individual campaign contributions — in two panels. While I recommend voters listen to both Round 1 and Round 2, we also posted lightning-round answers on the ‘gram. [City Cast Portland 🎧 / Instagram]
- City Council District 4: There are a dozen candidates running to fill three seats in District 4. Similar to District 3, we spoke to six of them, three at a time, to learn where they stand on public safety, if Mayor Keith Wilson is doing a good job, and what should be done about the city’s CEI hub. Again, those lightning-round answers are on Instagram. Check out Round 1 and Round 2 on the podcast. [Instagram / City Cast Portland 🎧]
- Portland’s ballot measure: In addition to choosing leaders, voters are being asked whether the city should create a participatory budgeting program via Measure 26-267. If approved, it would give Portlanders discretion over spending about $16 million annually. Specifics about how this program would be carried out are vague, and that seems to be intentional so Council has flexibility in implementation. [City Cast Portland 🎧]
| | But wait, there’s more: Stay tuned (aka keep reading our newsletter) for even more election resources coming to your inbox this week. |
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| What Portland's Talking About |
| Trump’s Sending Election Observers Our Way | Multnomah County is one of many places nationwide being targeted by federal election monitors. The Multnomah County elections director says observers are welcome, but prohibited from talking to election workers or handling ballots or official election materials. The U.S. Justice Department has historically deployed election monitors to ensure voters don’t experience discrimination or intimidation, though the monitoring comes after President Trump has repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to weaken the system of voting by mail, which Oregon has used since the late 1990s. [Willamette Week] | | No Wrongdoing Found in Prosper Exec’s Contract Awards | Prosper Portland’s board of commissioners told city officials that executive director Cornell Wesley followed the rules in awarding $456,000 in no-bid contracts to college friends. A staff memo said “a personal friendship is not conflict of interest under these authorities.” Two councilors say the contracts still raise questions about how the city oversees Prosper. [Willamette Week] | | Who Got Prosper’s No-Bid Contracts? | Two of the three contracts were awarded to out-of-state law firms with no Oregon presence. The third contract went to a Chicago-based consulting firm that Prosper said was “uniquely positioned” for the work, which is reviewing loan guidelines. It’s unclear what the law firm contracts pertain to; Prosper has claimed attorney-client privilege prevents sharing the information. [City Cast Portland 🎧] |
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