Multnomah County reports 68 percent voter turnout and record number of late return ballots as tallying of ranked choice votes continues by Courtney Vaughn A third round of preliminary election results released Thursday evening reflects no notable changes in the Portland City Council races. With Keith Wilson securing the mayor’s seat the day prior, results in City Council districts largely held firm. City Council races In District 1, Candace Avalos, Loretta Smith and Jamie Dunphy remain in the lead, in that order.  In District 2, Sameer Kanal, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, and Dan Ryan are all but guaranteed Council seats.  District 3 saw Steve Novick, a former city commissioner, pull off a first-round win, guaranteeing his return to City Hall. He will be joined by Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo.  In District 4, Olivia Clark secured a first-round win, with Mitch Green and Eric Zimmerman leading behind her. The latest results show Zimmerman was nearly tied with Eli Arnold on initial first-rank vote tallies, with Zimmerman securing only nine more votes than Arnold. While Thursday’s results provide a much clearer picture of who will end up at City Hall in 2025, the Multnomah County Elections Office said a deluge of late return ballots is slowing down the counting process. The Elections Office reports 133,000 ballots were returned on election day—a record number of late ballot returns. “As of this afternoon, there are just under 81,000 ballots that could be counted, including received ballots that have been challenged and would need action from the voter to move forward,” a press release from the county states. “Staff are working diligently to process, sort, verify and count all of those late-arriving ballots. But the scale of the influx means it may be another few days of counting before Elections is able to count and report all remaining ballots.” As of Thursday evening, Multnomah County reported 68 percent voter turnout. In Portland, 74 percent of registered voters returned ballots.  Results won’t be finalized until Dec. 2.