Voters’ Guides for the May 21, 2024 Primary Election

Before all Multnomah County elections, the Portland League prepares independent, nonpartisan printed voting guides to give voters reliable information about candidates and ballot measures. League members ask the candidates substantive questions and publish their unedited responses in the guide. We invite all candidates to include their information in our printed Voters’ Guide.  League members also research the ballot measures by reviewing extensive information about each measure and interviewing the organizations in support and opposition. We work hard to keep all the information in our Voters’ Guide fair.  Once published and distributed, printed copies of the League of Women Voters’ Guide are available in all Multnomah County public libraries, at the Multnomah County Elections Office (1040 SE Morrison Street, Portland OR 97214) and at the Voting Center Express in the Multnomah County East Building (600 NE 8th Street, Gresham OR 97030).

The League can create a custom guide for you! Go to VOTE411.org and enter your residence address to see  information about candidates and measures on your ballot for the current election. For this and many future elections VOTE411.org has information in both English and Spanish. The same information that is in our printed Voters’ Guides is also on the VOTE411.org website, which we expect to go live by mid-April. VOTE411.org also has videos of the candidate interviews from our Video Voters’ Guides and videos that the candidates themselves add.

Vote411 instructions.

Our Video Voters’ Guides features eight- to ten-minute interviews with participating candidates, running for office in Primary, General or Special Elections in Multnomah County. We expect these interviews to be available on our site by the time your ballot arrives in the mail.

For most elections, the League also conducts one or more election forums. These are recorded and the videos are posted on this website and on VOTE411.org.

In a forum, all the candidates for each position or advocates on both sides of each ballot measure are invited to answer questions. The candidates and speakers for each position (or measure) are asked similar questions and their responses are time-limited, so that they all have the same opportunity to respond. Voters are able to compare the candidates or the reasons to support or oppose each ballot measure. MetroEast Community Media helps us produce our Video Voters’ Guides and videos and podcasts of forums.

Our printed Voters’ Guides, online VOTE411.org guide, Video Voters’ Guides, Voter Forums and Podcasts require months of planning. They are also based on years of experience and knowledge about how to make sure our information is nonpartisan, accurate, and unbiased.

• First, we go to the websites of the Secretary of State’s Elections Office and the Multnomah County Elections Division. There we find out which offices will be filled in the next election. We can also learn which measures have qualified to be on local election ballots.  
• About four months before the next election, a group of League members who follow current issues, are surveyed to propose and draft the candidate questions for each office. They consider what the candidates in the upcoming election will have to face if they are elected. Some questions are based upon public policy issues that the League is following, questions asked in previous election cycles, or current news reports. This group then frames questions that are open-ended and as fair as possible. The questions are approved by the LWV Board. These questions are sent to all the candidates for each office the day after the filing deadline. The candidates’ answers are included in our print Voters’ Guide, if submitted by our printing deadline. Their answers are also included in VOTE411.org up through Election Day.
• For ballot measure research, we recruit League volunteers who have an interest or expertise on the subject of the measure. These volunteers contact experts or government officials who work in the agencies the measure will affect. They learn as much as possible about the current situation and how the measure would change it. The ballot measure researchers also contact both the advocates who support the measure and those who oppose it.  After the researchers write their draft reports, an editing committee reviews them. The editors suggest ways to improve the reports and make them as complete, fair and balanced as possible.
• After the filing deadline for ballot measures, candidate and ballot measure questions are reviewed and refined by interested LWVPDX members for use in the Video Voters’ Guides and the Candidate and Ballot Measure Voter Forums 

The Oregon Student Mock Election is an exciting experience-based educational program that involves participating students in the electoral process and demonstrates the importance of voting. 

Students will vote for candidates and measures on an abbreviated Mock Election Ballot created just for them. All Oregon students, grades 6-12, are eligible.

LWV classroom-ready materials help students gain the knowledge they need to participate in democracy.

For more information, click here.

In November 2024, Portland voters will use Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to elect our next mayor, city councilors, and auditor. We are not alone. RCV is being used more in elections throughout the U.S. To learn more about RCV, click here.

The City of Portland’s elected positions will not appear on the May 2024 ballot. You will vote for these positions in November 2024.

How to judge a candidate, information from our national LWV Education Fund. 

Volunteers in our Speakers Bureau are trained to share well-researched, nonpartisan information. Speakers can meet in person with a group of voters or provide an online discussion via Zoom. They can address:

• Voter registration and the mechanics of voting, including ranked choice voting. Our speakers also can help your audience register (or update their registrations).
• Importance of voting and civic participation.
• Local and state ballot measures (during election season). League speakers are trained to share balanced information that will help voters make informed choices on their ballots. Our presentations provide background information and discuss both pros and cons for each measure. For general elections, LWV speakers address between 20 and 40 groups of voters at churches, businesses, clubs and congregant living facilities.

To schedule a League speaker for your group, please contact our office at 503-228-1675 or info@lwvpdx.org. Helpful details to provide when you contact us include:

• Your Name, Phone Number, Email
• Organization/Group name (and Website if you have one)
• Proposed date, time, and location
• Size of group (and any other notes about the potential audience you would like to provide.)
• Topic(s) of interest