Turns out, Kshama Sawant’s late voter surge will come early. In only the second day of updates since Election Night, the Socialist Alternative incumbent massively narrowed the lead of challenger Egan Orion.

The race now stands at Orion, 51.0%, Sawant, 48.6%. While he still commands a two-point, 739-vote lead, Orion is now racing against math — and it is not looking good.

** UPDATE 11/8/19: A new leader in D3 race: incumbent Sawant pulls ahead **

In the Thursday count adding about 6,000 new ballots, Sawant claimed an incredible 59.3% of the vote and has now shaved about 3 points off Orion’s Election Night 8.4-point lead.

King County Elections now says District 3 turnout has reached 58.2% with 43,520 ballots returned.

The Sawant leap mirrors in many ways her extreme bounce back against Richard Conlin in 2013, a comeback we noted in Wednesday’s update.

On Tuesday, Orion described his early 8.4% lead as squarely in the “OK” range for safe distance from the get out the vote strength of the Sawant campaign.

Thursday his campaign issued a statement about the tightening race. “We are hopeful our work on the ground will pay off so that District 3 can get the local representation it deserves,” Orion said.

Unfortunately this election remains too close to call and it is going to be close. Our campaign ran a people-powered campaign, funded by Democracy Vouchers and individual contributions that allowed us to speak with voters in every neighborhood and community across District 3. We heard loud and clear that neighbors want collaborative solutions rather than divisive politics, that centers on solutions to our city’s challenges rather than just sound bites. I got into this campaign to give a voice in City Hall to every neighbor rather than represent a national movement, but this election became a national referendum on money in politics. I share the community’s concern about how much corporate spending there was in this campaign. Win or lose, I am going to work to ensure our elections are driven by people and not big corporate spending. We are hopeful our work on the ground will pay off so that District 3 can get the local representation it deserves. Stay tuned!

King County Elections says it is planning two more updates on Friday.

In addition to the updates as King County counts new ballots, both campaigns will also work to “cure” ballots with issues like signatures that don’t match a person’s voter registration. Tuesday night, Sawant supporters implored the crowd to donate to support the ballot recovery cause.

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