The position is non-partisan. The election was held using instant-runoff voting, the rules of which include voters ranking their top five candidates. If one candidate receives a majority (greater than 50%) of the #1 ranked votes, they win the election, but if no candidate meets that criteria, then the candidates with the lowest votes are eliminated and tallying continues to the #2 ranking, and so on until a single candidate receives a majority of votes. Following election day, ballot tallying showed that no candidate received the minimum >50% of the vote necessary to win outright.[2] The two candidates with the most #1 ranked votes were Councilmember Loren Taylor and Councilmember Sheng Thao, with Taylor receiving slightly more votes.[3] Vote tallying continued for over a week, before Thao was eventually declared winner on November 21.[4] The final tally, after rank tallying, had Thao with 50.3% of the 113,636 votes and Taylor with 49.7%.[4]