Election 2024: Your guide to Oregon’s November election

Oregonians will have the chance to vote on key federal, statewide and local races and measures during the Nov. 5 national election, including contests for one of the most competitive seats in Congress, statewide races for the secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general and five significant statewide measures.

In Portland, voters will participate in an historic election, selecting a new mayor and 12 City Council members as the city ushers in a new form of city government.

Oregon counties will mail ballots by Oct. 22, and voters will have until Election Day to mail their ballots back or drop them off at an official dropbox. Voters have until Oct. 15 to register to vote.

You can register to vote, update your registration or simply check that you are a registered voter by going to oregonvotes.gov/myvote. Enter your first and last name and birthday and you’ll see whether your registration is current and which party, if any, you belong to.

Below we’ve highlighted the key races that Oregon voters will decide this fall and included links to The Oregonian/OregonLive’s top coverage of this year’s candidates and ballot measures to help you make informed decisions. We will continue to update this page through Election Day with more information and links.

Voters in the Portland area will cast ballots in two of the most competitive races for Congress this fall.

In Congressional District 5, first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces Democratic challenger Janelle Bynum, a four-term member of the state House, in a race that could help decide control of the U.S. House.

The district stretches from Southeast Portland to Bend. As of August, Democrats made up about 31% of the district’s 530,000 registered voters and Republicans made up about 27%. The Cook Political Report rates the race as a toss-up.

Across the Columbia River from Portland, Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez will try to defend her seat against Donald Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent in a rematch of the 2022 race for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, which spans the southwestern part of the state.

That race is also expected to be among the most competitive congressional races this fall, and is currently ranked as a toss-up by The Cook Political Report.

National Democratic and Republican groups are expected to spend big in both Washington’s 3rd and Oregon’s 5th districts.

Elsewhere in Oregon, Democratic U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas is facing businessman Mike Erickson in a rematch of the 2022 race for the 6th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep Val Hoyle is trying to defend her 4th District seat against Air Force veteran Monique DeSpain and Democratic state Rep. Maxine Dexter is on track to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer in the 3rd District.

Oregon voters will pick a new secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer this fall.

Democrats have controlled those statewide offices for years. Oregon voters have only elected a Republican to serve as secretary of state once since 1985. A Republican hasn’t served as state treasurer or attorney general since 1993.

The contest to replace Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is expected to be the most competitive of the statewide races on the ballot this fall. The race pits former Democratic Oregon House Speaker Dan Rayfield against Will Lathrop, a former deputy district attorney in Marion and Yamhill counties. Both candidates have raised around $1 million for their campaigns, with Rayfield slightly ahead in fundraising as of mid-August.

In the secretary of state’s race, Democratic state Treasurer Tobias Read will face state Sen. Dennis Linthicum of Beatty, who is barred from seeking reelection to the Senate after participating in a 2023 walkout.

The next secretary of state will be tasked with restoring trust in the elected office, which has seen significant upheaval in recent years. Shemia Fagan, Oregon’s last elected secretary of state, resigned in May 2023 after it came to light that she had taken a $10,000 a month consulting gig with an affiliate of embattled marijuana company La Mota at a time when her office was auditing the cannabis industry.

In the treasurer’s race, Democratic state Sen. Elizabeth Steiner is taking on state Republican Sen. Brian Boquist, who is barred from seeking reelection in the Senate after participating in the 2023 walkout.

And in the Legislature, key contests, including the race to replace former Republican Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, could help determine whether Democrats can reclaim their supermajority in the state House or Senate.

Portland voters will select a new mayor and a dozen City Council members this fall in an historic election that will radically transform government and political power structures in Oregon’s most populous city.

The 2024 election comes two years after voters approved the revamp in 2022.

In November, Portland voters will elect a new mayor using a common form of single-winner ranked-choice voting that has been adopted in more than 40 U.S. cities. Under the new system of government, however, the mayor will hold less power in council proceedings, with no veto power and the ability to only cast a vote in the case of a council tie.

The mayor will be tasked with choosing a new city administrator, subject to council approval. The city administrator and a half-dozen deputies will oversee the vast bureaucracy that Portland mayors of the past parceled out among their commissioner colleagues.

Instead of electing five members to the City Council, voters will instead elect an expanded 12-person City Council whose members will come from four large geographic districts. Voters will use a less common form of ranked-choice voting that requires only 25% to win and is not used to choose council members in any other U.S. city to elect three city councilors from each geographic district.

Read more:

Portland’s sweeping overhaul of government, elections nears. No one knows what will unfold

How Portland elects its mayor is about to drastically change. Here are the promises — and pitfalls

Top strategists for Gonzalez, Rubio depart Portland mayoral campaigns to launch big money push for candidates

Former Portland Mayor Sam Adams will face Shannon Singleton, a trained social worker and former head of the Portland-Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services, in a runoff to represent Multnomah County Commission District 2, which spans North and Northeast Portland.

The race pits a moderate, business friendly candidate in Adams against Singleton, an unwavering progressive, as the county’s normally low-key elected body — long dominated by left-leaning members — faces increased scrutiny and scorn.

In District 1, Multnomah County Commission candidates Meghan Moyer, the policy director at Disability Rights Oregon, and Vadim Mozyrsky, an adminstrative judge with the Social Security Administration, will compete for a second time this fall to represent Portland’s west side on the commission. The winner will succeed Commissioner Sharon Meieran, the most outspoken critic of Chair Jessica Vega Pederson on the board.

Incumbent Clackamas County Chair Tootie Smith will face former Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts in a runoff this fall. Roberts received more votes than Smith in the May primary, but failed to secure the more than 50% needed to win the chair seat outright, forcing the November runoff. The race could look very different with a much higher turnout expected in the 2024 general election than in the primary.

Embattled incumbent Clackamas County Commissioner Mark Shull is also facing a runoff this fall against small business owner Melissa Fireside.

Oregon voters will see five statewide measures on their ballot this November.

Among the most contentious thus far is Measure 118, which would raise corporate taxes to give every Oregonian an estimated $1,600 per year. Proponents of Measure 118 say it would relieve some of the financial burden on low-income Oregonians and require large corporations to pay their fair share in taxes. But the measure has faced strong opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. A bipartisan group of nearly 50 lawmakers, more than 200 companies and business interest groups and Gov. Tina Kotek have all come out in opposition of the measure.

Measure 115 would amend the state Constitution to allow the Oregon Legislature with a two-thirds vote in each chamber to impeach statewide elected officials, including the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and labor commissioner.

Measure 116 would establish an independent compensation commission that would determine the salaries of certain elected officials, including the governor, statewide elected officials, state lawmakers, judges and district attorneys.

Measure 117 would institute single-winner ranked-choice voting for future federal and statewide races. Alaska and Maine are currently the only two states that have fully implemented that system.

Finally, Measure 119 would require owners of cannabis businesses to allow workers to unionize without interference.

The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board will issue endorsements later this fall in select races in the 2024 election.

– The Oregonian/OregonLive Politics Team