Is it too easy for candidates to run for political office in Portland?

That’s a question the city elections office is considering in the aftermath of a local election that saw nearly 120 candidates on the ballot last November.

To reduce the number of “non-serious” candidates, the elections department has proposed making it more expensive to run in the first place.

When a candidate files paperwork to run for office in Portland, they must pay $75 to enter a city council election and $100 to join a mayor or auditor race. Under the proposed changes, floated in a city survey published in early August, the city is considering raising that cost more than tenfold. The city wants to know what people think about the proposal by Sept. 15.

The survey, first reported on by The Oregonian/OregonLive, offers three options. One would increase the council candidacy fees to $100 and the mayor and auditor fees to $150. The second would bump those fees to $250 and $325, respectively. And the final option would increase council candidate fees to $1,332 and mayor or auditor fees to $1,655. The largest numbers were chosen because they equate to 1% of the positions’ salaries.

This proposal comes after a uniquely unusual election cycle. November’s election was Portland’s first using ranked choice voting and the first in which voters selected councilors by geographic district.

City Elections Manager Deborah Scroggin said she heard from voters that the new voting system, paired with the sheer number of candidates, was overwhelming. Several voter polls conducted after the November election echoed this sentiment.

“We take that feedback seriously,” said Scroggin. “And we want to see what we can do to improve the voter experience and the candidate experience in the next election.”

Portland wouldn’t be the first city to hike filing fees to limit the number of candidates. In 2014, Minneapolis increased its $20 filing fee for all candidates to $250 for council candidates and $500 for mayor. This came after the city introduced ranked choice voting and saw 35 candidates run for mayor.

Portland saw 19 mayoral candidates and 98 council candidates in its first ranked choice election last year.

Scroggin said that from her research, there’s a correlation between candidate filing fees and cities’ voting systems.

“When we look at jurisdictions that do have rank choice voting, they tend to have a little higher fees,” she said.

The point isn’t to make races out of reach for low-income candidates, Scroggin said. Candidates can apply for a fee waiver if they earn below 60% of the city’s median income (that’s $54,180 for a two-person household). Candidates of any income level can also qualify for the ballot for free if they collect 500 signatures in support.

These options won’t go away if the city increases candidate filing fees, Scroggin said.

“This isn’t about making it an unattainable thing to get on the ballot,” she said. “It’s really about striking that balance.”

After the survey closes next week, the elections office will draft an update to the filing fee policy. The city will ask for feedback on the proposal one more time before it goes into effect, likely by the end of the year.

Six city council seats will be on the ballot next November. While some candidates have already announced their plans to run, candidates can’t officially file for the election until June 2026.

The filing fee change is one of several potential changes that may come before next year’s city council races. On Monday, councilors discussed ways to strengthen the city’s Small Donor Election program, which uses public funding to match campaign contributions.

Candidates qualify for the program if they pledge to not accept more than $350 from any donor. The city matches any individual donations below $20 at a 9-to-1 ratio. That can turn a $5 donation into $50. Under the program, candidates can unlock more total money from the city the more individual donations they receive.

Councilor Dan Ryan pointed to an issue that arose from last year’s race, in which nine candidates paid an environmental nonprofit to go door-to-door collecting small donations for candidates, in order to unlock more city funds. Reporting from Willamette Week found that some of those who donated didn’t recall who they were donating to, suggesting that the nonprofit misled voters into contributing.

“I remain concerned that there is an industry for paid lobbyists to go door to door to fundraise for candidates, but they’re not that transparent about the exact beneficiaries of their efforts,” Ryan said.

Small Donor Elections Director Susan Mottet said she’ll consider updating training for candidates to ensure that any canvassers they hire disclose their association with the candidate to avoid voter confusion. She added that it’s common for donors to have “some fuzziness” about campaign contributions after the fact.

Mottet’s office is still awaiting a ruling from the secretary of state’s office on another potential misuse of the program: whether candidates violated election laws when they traded donations to maximize their city matching funds.

Scroggin said she doesn’t want the city to make too many changes so soon after last year’s overhaul.

“Last year, that was a lot of change,” she said. “We’re going to try and minimize that this time around, and really just focus on voter education and connecting with Portlanders.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/09/portland-candidate-fees-non-serious/