The next election for Multnomah County will be the November 5, 2024 General Election.
All Multnomah County registered voters will receive General Election ballots. Portland City candidates will be elected by ranked choice voting in November.
The most recent previous election affecting most of Multnomah County was the May 2024 Primary Election.
The previous Oregon election for local, state and federal candidates was the November 8, 2022 General Election
You can find specific information about the 2022 General Election here.
Nonpartisan Election Information
The League of Women Voters of Portland prepares nonpartisan information for every local and statewide election. Information about each election is posted on a special page on this website devoted to just that election. This page connects to the current election a short time before ballots are mailed. Usually ballots are mailed two and a half weeks before an election.
After you have filled out your ballot – Mail it or drop it off!
REMEMBER THAT WE VOTE BY MAIL. THE POSTAGE IS FREE. You don’t need a stamp, but your ballot must postmarked before or on Election Day. (This is a change in the mailing deadline effective January 2022.) Instead of mailing your ballot, you may drop it off at official ballot dropsite by 8 PM Election Day.
For all Primary and General Elections in even-numbered years, the League produces a printed Voters’ Guide in English and Spanish:
Before all Multnomah County elections, the Portland League prepares independent, nonpartisan online and/or 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 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. Copies of the League of Women Voters guides 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).
Personalized Vote411.org Voting Guides
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. Vote411.org also has videos of the candidate interviews from our Video Voters’ Guide and videos that the candidates themselves add.
Video Voters’ Guide
Video clip from May 2021 Video Voters’ Guide
Our Video Voters’ Guide features eight- to ten-minute interviews with candidates, running for office in Primary, General or Special Elections in Multnomah County. You can view the November General Election 2022 Video Voters’ Guide here. For the November 2022 General Election, we will add podcasts of candidate interviews.
Videos of voter forums
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. We produced four voter forums for the 2022 General Election. They are all posted under Voter Forums at the bottom of the November 8, 2022 General Election page here. (Scroll down to the bottom of that page to find the links.)
Clip from May 2021 Video Voter Forum for Portland School Board
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 timed, 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.
How to Judge a Candidate
How to judge a candidate, information from our national LWV Education Fund.
How we plan and conduct research for our voters’ guides and 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 the guides are 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 gathers to write the candidate questions. They discuss and decide what the candidates in the upcoming election will have to face if they are elected. They ask, “What do we need to know about these candidates? What questions will show whether they can handle the demands of the offices they seek?” This group then frames questions that are open-ended and as fair as possible. The questions are approved by the LWV Board. Then, the day after the filing deadline, we send the relevant questions to all the candidates for each office. We want all the candidates to receive their questions at the same time. 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.
More Information
Speakers Bureau
Volunteers in our Speakers Bureau are trained to share well-researched, nonpartisan information.
To book a speaker contact us at info@lwvpdx.org or speakers@lwvpdx.org. We can provide online speakers via Zoom or speakers who can visit a group of voters.
Our speakers can address:
- Voter registration and the mechanics of voting. Our speakers can help your audience register (or update their registrations).
- Importance of voting and civic participation.
- Activities and history of the League of Women Voters.
- 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.
- Any topic that the League has studied or taken a position on (see our web page “League Positions: Where We Stand” under the Advocate tab above)
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