Friday Night Ballot Drop: Sawant Is Now 1,500 Votes Ahead!

Seattle voters don't listen to the conservatives on the Seattle Times Editorial Board. Lester Black

Council Member Kshama Sawant has all but assured her victory over Egan Orion after a Friday night ballot drop put her 1,515 votes and 3.62 percentage points over her Amazon-approved challenger. With an estimated 1,157 votes left to count in District 3, Sawant has essentially guaranteed that she will be reelected to her third term on the council.

Friday night's ballot drop also delivered some unfortunate news for the council race's other socialist. Shaun Scott is still sitting 5 percentage points behind Amazon-backed Alex Pedersen in District 4. With Scott trailing by 1,579 votes his chances of a win have sadly ended. Although Scott's final vote count is far better than what many observers expected and far better than the nearly 16 percentage points he was trailing on Tuesday's election night.

Supporters of affirmative action did not get any good news from the late Friday night ballot drop. Approving Referendum 88, which would legalize affirmative action across the state, is still trailing by nearly 25,000 votes statewide.

Andrew Lewis expanded his lead over Jim Pugel in District 7. Lewis is now over 2,000 votes ahead of Pugel, a dramatic swing from the 200-vote deficit Lewis started with on Tuesday night.

Friday night's vote tally essentially guarantees terrible results for Amazon and the Chamber of Commerce's record-breaking election spending spree. If the results Friday night hold—and there's little reason to think the outcomes will change—the chamber supported only two winning candidates: Pedersen and Debora Juarez in District 7. Both of those candidates were already favorites before the chamber started spending millions in this election.

The Seattle Times Editorial Board had an even poorer showing in this council election, selecting only one winner out of the seven positions up for election.

Also, congratulations to @SeaTimesOpinion for winning 1 out 7 in their Seattle City Council endorsements!

— Goldy (@GoldyHA) November 9, 2019

Only 5 percent of King County's votes still need to be counted after Friday's two ballot drops, according to a spokesperson for King County Elections.