The winner of an at-large seat on the Portland City Council will be determined Thursday by a drawing following a tie at the polls Tuesday.
Voters Tuesday also shot down a referendum to limit the size of homeless shelters and elected councilors to Districts 1 and 2.
Planning Board Chairperson Brandon Mazer and school board member Roberto Rodriguez each garnered 8,529 votes in an instant runoff after ranked-choice voting. None of the candidates in the four-way race –which also included Travis Curran and Stuart Tisdale – gained a 50% majority, which is required with RCV.
It is unclear how Curran and Tisdale fared after the tallies, but runoff results will be posted online when they become available, the city announced Wednesday afternoon.
According to the press release, “the City Clerk shall determine the winner in public by lot,” such by drawing one of the two names written on slips of paper.
The city’s rules on the tie-breaker were adopted in 2011 in conjunction with the charter amendments adopting ranked-choice voting, among other things.
The city clerk was scheduled to conduct the drawing at 10 a.m. Thursday at Ganley Plaza in front of City Hall.
In other election results, Anna Trevorrow won the race for the District 1 City Council seat with 1,985 votes. Her opponent, Sarah Michniewicz, received 1,652 votes.
In District 2, Victoria Pelletier, with 2,168 votes, had a sound victory over Jon Hinck, who garnered 1,477.
The bid for an at-large seat on the School Board saw a close race between Nyalat Billiew and Sarah Thompson. Despite the fact that she withdrew from the race Oct. 5, Thompson garnered 8,318 votes at the polls Tuesday and came in only 4% behind Billiew’s 9,169 votes.
Candidates sign an agreement stating they will not drop out, so Thompson’s name stayed on the ballot. If elected, she could have retained the seat or resigned immediately, in which case the at-large seat would have remained vacant until the June elections.
Residents rejected a proposal to limit homeless shelters to 50 beds, known as “small shelters.” Voters had three options: 5,528 voted in favor of the first option to require smaller shelters; the City’s Council’s proposal to cap the number of beds at 150 received 6,183 votes; and the third option, opposing the first two options, received the most votes with 8,092.
In the state referendums, Portlanders voted against continuing the Central Maine Power Clean Energy Connect Corridor, 12,386 to 8,525.
Voters also approved a bond issue that would levy funds for road work and other infrastructure needs, with 17,970 in favor and 8,525 against.
Residents approved the third question, to amend the state constitution to declare that all people have an inherent right to grow and raise food of their choosing on their land, with 11,104 in favor and 9,498 against.
Voter turnout was 30.9%, with 19,423 voters of 62,780 registered voters casting ballots.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.