The first ballot drop in the August mayoral primary took place last night around 8 p.m. With 98,328 ballots counted (and 96,445 on hand to be counted, plus whatever continue to trickle in through the mail), Ed Murray and Mike McGinn have established clear leads over the rest of the field.
Third-place Peter Steinbrueck, saying he’d slept on it, conceded this morning, said KUOW. He declined at that time to make an endorsement, though when we spoke with him earlier in the campaign, he admitted to less of an affinity for the Murray campaign.
The next update is due at 4:30 p.m. today. If, as one narrative has it, younger voters procrastinated on mailing their ballots, McGinn, who is said to be strong with that demographic, could eat into Murray’s 2,884-vote lead.
[UPDATE: As of the August 8 afternoon drop, McGinn has indeed pulled to within two percent of Murray, with King County Elections reporting 140,000 Seattle ballots ready to count.]
In the City Council primary races, socialist economist Kshama Sawant won 33 percent of the vote against incumbent Richard Conlin’s 49 percent. Incumbent Mike O’Brien, whom conventional wisdom proclaimed vulnerable, fared much better in his outing, with 57 percent to challenger and non-socialist Albert Shen’s 35 percent.
In the Seattle School District board director primaries, Stephan Blanford seems to have his race already sewn up, with 78 percent of the vote, while Suzanne Dale Estey leads Sue Peters 47.5 percent to 42 percent.
At King County level, Executive Dow Constantine is slightly more popular than even parks, carrying 75.5 percent to the parks levy’s 68 percent approval.