The Cincinnati City Council is the lawmaking body of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. The nine-member city council is elected at-large in a single election in which each voter chooses nine candidates from the field. The nine top vote-getters win seats on the council for a four-year term. Until the charter of 1925, the council comprised 32 members—six elected at-large and 26 elected from single-member wards. The 1925 charter instituted the present nine-member council elected in a single

non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers s ...

, at-large election. From 1925 to 1955, elections were under the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

form of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. The mayor was chosen by the council from among its members. In the 1970s, the system was changed so that the top vote-getter in the council election automatically became mayor. Since 2001, the mayor is chosen in a separate election. Although the election officially is non-partisan, the local Charterite party and three of the major political parties ( Democratic,

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

) all endorse candidates in the race. Party designations, however, can be fluid. After the 1997 election, for example, Democrats Minette Cooper and

Dwight Tillery Dwight Tillery is an American politician of the Democratic Party who is active in local politics of Cincinnati, Ohio and served as the city's mayor from 1991 to 1993. Tillery grew up in the city's West End and attended the University of Cinc ...

formed a majority coalition on the council with Republicans Charlie Winburn, Phil Heimlich, and Jeanette Cissell. Prior to 2013, council members were elected for two-year terms. In 2013, a referendum was passed changing City Council to four-year terms. In 2018, two competing proposals were placed on the ballot to modify the structure of City Council yet again. Issue 10 would bring back two-year terms; Issue 11 would keep four-year terms but stagger them, such that five council members would be elected in a mayoral election year, and four council members would be elected two years later. Issue 10 passed with a larger margin of victory, meaning that City Council will return to two-year terms beginning with the 2021 election. The next city council election is scheduled for November 7, 2023.

Cincinnati City Council Members

Election results

''Italic type'' indicates ''incumbent''.

Notes

External links

Cincinnati City Council

SmartVoter.org
– Current & historical election information to 1998 for Hamilton County, OH presented by the League of Women Voters
Hamilton County, OH Board of Elections
Current & historical election information

Political Contribution Data

{{Cincinnati City Council City Council, Election Results * Ohio city councils