With 137,237 votes counted thus far in the Seattle mayoral race, Bruce Harrell, the Democratic incumbent, leads with 73,883 votes (53.84%), more than eight points ahead of his Democratic challenger, Katie Wilson, who has secured 62,700 votes (45.69%), per state figures.
That lead grew by about a percentage point when a fresh batch of votes were announced at 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday in a race where it could reportedly take several days to determine a winner.
“The race isn’t over folks,” stated Wilson, a progressive who has accused Israel of “genocide” and whom the Council on American-Islamic Relations endorsed, on Wednesday.
“We anticipated the day after the election would look like a continuation of day one, where the results typically favor the more conservative candidate,” Wilson said on Wednesday after the new results were announced.
“This election is no exception. We were thrilled yesterday to see voters lining up to fill ballot boxes throughout the city,” she stated. “We continue to feel hopeful about this race, and we look forward to the results when all the votes are counted.”
Stephen Reed, communications director for the Washington State Democratic Party, told JNS that the party is “watching closely.”
Reed said that he has heard that both campaigns are running ballot cure operations, in which lawyers meet and discuss returned ballots about which there are questions,” which they should,” Reed said. “It’s going to be tight.”
The Washington state secretary of state’s office website states that 137,237 votes have been counted in Seattle. The King County, Wash., website uses a different figure, 139,173. Both say that there are 505,393 registered voters in the city. State figures suggest turnout of about 24.04% across the state.
Hannah Krieg, who edits an online publication that identifies as “highly informed, slightly unhinged leftwing journalism,” stated that “Wednesday drops are typically not as indicative as the Thursday drop.”
Mike Baker, a New York Times reporter, stated prior to the votes dropping on Wednesday that there is a “very good chance” that Wilson will win and that “it certainly seems possible (likely?) that Katie Wilson can make up a 7-point difference.”
“It will depend on how well the candidates reached last-minute voters,” he said, noting that numbers shifted dramatically in prior races.
After the ballots dropped on Wednesday, Baker wrote that there was a “a bit of a surprise in the new ballots that just posted from the Seattle mayor’s race.”
“Bruce Harrell has actually expanded his lead. He got nearly 57% of the ballots counted today, expanding his lead to 8 points,” Baker stated. “But lots of votes remaining to count.”
“Later ballots in Seattle generally swing left, shifting the margins of some races by more than double digits,” he said. “I just went back to look at the 2021 race. Harrell started losing ground on day two. This time, he gained, so it’s possible his numbers could be more resilient this time.”
“I also went back to look at the daily drops from the 2017 election,” he said. “Durkan began performing worse in the second day’s count, so Harrell’s numbers today are noteworthy compared to the past two elections.”
The Times reporter estimated that only about half of the ballots have been counted, “so if the gap begins to narrow tomorrow, I suspect we won’t know until next week.”
