Voters fill East End Community School on Tuesday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

There were no clear winners in the three races for Portland City Council or a school board seat shortly after polls closed Tuesday night.

The polls closed at 8 pm and as of 8:15 pm the city had not yet reported any results in those races. Jessica Grondin, a city spokeswoman, told reporters and candidates awaiting numbers Tuesday night that “results will take a while due to the volume of ballots and polling places that still have lines.”

Three Portland City Council seats were up for grabs this year (in Districts 1 and 2 and one at-large seat) after Councilmembers Roberto Rodriguez, Anna Trevorrow and Victoria Pelletier decided not to run for re-election. In the run-up to Election Day, many of the city’s candidates cited housing and homelessness among top issues.

This also marked the first election in Portland in which all candidates running for a council seat had registered under the city’s new clean elections program. And last month, some of the candidates were surprised when a national political action committee spent $56,000 to support a handful of more moderate candidates.

In District 1, where Trevorrow gave up her seat, Sarah Michniewicz and Todd Morse are running to represent East End, Bayside and Casco Bay Islands. Both candidates have said housing and transportation are priorities for them, although they offered different ideas on how to address those problems.

District 2 – currently represented by Victoria Pelletier – tied a crowded race with Atiim Boykin, Nancy English, Catherine Nekoie, Robert O’Brien and Wesley Pelletier vying for the seat. District 2 covers most of the west side of the peninsula, between High Street and County Way, and a small part of Back Cove.

The overall race was also packed with five candidates: Jess Falero, Benjamin Grant, Grayson Lookner, Brandon Mazer, and Jacob Viola. The candidates came from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience, but also said homelessness and housing were the city’s biggest issues.

Although three Portland school board seats would be up for election this fall, only a race was held.

A substitute teacher, Maya Lena, and a businessman, John Rousseau, ran for that at-large position. Political newcomers joined the race after Nyalat Biliew announced he would not seek re-election.

Boykin and Nekoie were outside Reiche Elementary School in the morning greeting voters as they went to the polls.

By 5 p.m., the line stretched right outside the gym. Nekoie and Falero, who are not running against each other for a seat but have very different platforms on housing and homelessness issues, were outside the door shaking hands and talking to voters.

“It has been very exciting. People are smiling. I love it,” Nekoie said.

“I’m excited to see how it all plays out, with ranked-choice voting you never know,” Falero said.

This story will be updated.

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