27 Replies to "ELECTION 2015: District 1 City Council race a bit closer after 2 more vote counts"

• Diane November 4, 2015 (6:09 pm)

  the ridiculousness of TV “news”; king5 reported “today Shannon widened her lead over Lisa Herbold”

  does the king5 newsroom own a calculator?

  thankfully, at that moment, I was reading actual results on the KC Elections website

  anxiously awaiting 7pm ballot count

• M November 4, 2015 (6:14 pm)

  I checked the status is my own ballot on the King County election tracker tool. Shows they received but hadn’t counted yet. So at least I know two more votes are going for Shannon. Keep it up.

  • WSB November 4, 2015 (6:18 pm)

    Direct link to the tracker M mentioned: https://info.kingcounty.gov/elections/ballottracker.aspx
    .
    We had it in an earlier story but I didn’t mention it in last night/tonight coverage. Always worth checking. One year my signature was rejected.

• ws_suzanne November 4, 2015 (6:32 pm)

  Just checked the tracker and discovered that it’s also been received but not counted. Dropped my ballot off at the post office on Monday afternoon.

  Lisa Herbold — all in my household voted for you!

• Elena November 4, 2015 (6:33 pm)

  COME ON LISA COME ON

• Harold November 4, 2015 (7:18 pm)

  Seems like KC elections department is in slo mo. No update to ballots received since yesterday. If there was a 40% turnout that means there are 10,000 more ballots to count in the D1 race. Could turnout really have been less than 30% again?

  • WSB November 4, 2015 (7:38 pm)

    (a) The ballot returns are updated at 8 pm nightly. Check here after 8: https://info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/ballotreturnstats/default.aspx
    .
    (b) Mega-low turnout again seems to be a very real possibility.

• Jon Wright November 4, 2015 (7:44 pm)

  Harold, I dropped my wife’s and my ballot off by the golf course yesterday afternoon and per the ballot tracker, they still have not received it.

• Trickycoolj November 4, 2015 (8:13 pm)

  Dropped mine at the White Center van around 5:00 and it also hasn’t been “received” as of 8pm tonight.

• Cs in Hp November 4, 2015 (8:15 pm)

  Our ballots aren’t even showing as having been received yet- we dropped off at greenbridge drop box on Tuesday. I would assume there are a lot of votes for Lisa in that same box after seeing the map of who voted for her in the primaries.

• Harold November 4, 2015 (8:15 pm)

  Thanks WSB. The 8:00 vote received tally does show about a 40% turnout with 6,000 ballots signature verified and ready to be counted. Hope KC elections can get this done by 4:30 tomorrow. This is Seattle not Chicago in 1960.

  • WSB November 4, 2015 (8:50 pm)

    Ballots tend to take two days to be noted – in our experience, anyway. We dropped ours at the West Seattle Stadium box on Monday afternoon and while I didn’t check yesterday, they are confirmed tonight as received “and will be counted.”

• Tedb310 November 4, 2015 (8:54 pm)

  Diane, I think what King 5 was reporting is that after last nights count the spread was 733 votes, and after today’s 4:30 count it was 760. That’s when their story ran. I doubt they’ve reported since the 7:00 PM count which gets the race to a 729 difference.

  • WSB November 4, 2015 (8:58 pm)

    Good point regarding a percentage narrowing vs. vote-total narrowing. I changed the verbiage to clarify that.

• Diane November 4, 2015 (10:30 pm)

  so, I dropped my ballot Monday, 4:45pm at WS stadium; it’s now showing received/verified, but my vote for Lisa not yet counted

• Joe Szilagyi November 5, 2015 (7:33 am)

  I posted a math update to the D1 Facebook group here:
  .
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattledistrict1/permalink/925653980804927/
  .
  Right now Shannon wins unless Lisa gets 52.4% of outstanding ballots, which is a VERY real possibility. This won’t be over for a couple of days at this rate.

• Harold November 5, 2015 (8:08 am)

  Seems to be a pro Lisa theme in this thread. Will the results show that the leftyer you are the later you vote ? Any poli-sci majors out there who can explain why ?

• wscommuter November 5, 2015 (9:31 am)

  It’s sort of weird/fascinating to read the comments on this string … that folks seem to feel the need to weigh in for one candidate or another even though the election is over. The votes will get counted and we’ll know who wins soon enough … so this hand-wringing about whether one’s vote has been counted yet or not seems fairly pointless and silly to me and the apparent need to still advocate for your fave is likewise kinda needy and weird.

  • WSB November 5, 2015 (9:37 am)

    But, WSC, it’s never too soon to start talking about the next election. While the district councilmembers are being elected for 4 years, the two at-large seats get 2-year terms, until they run for 4-year terms in 2017. So in theory any defeated candidate this time around might consider running at large in 2017 …

• Joe Szilagyi November 5, 2015 (10:37 am)

  “Will the results show that the leftyer you are the later you vote ?”
  .
  That’s been the trend locally here for a long time. Remember on Election Night, as the best example, Richard Conlin was up on Sawant by 8%, and he lost in the end by 2%.

• Peter November 5, 2015 (10:40 am)

  Harold, don’t know about an explanation, but the recent history of our elections does seem to reflect that liberals cast their votes later. I’m a conservative by Seattle standards (I’d be considered far left anywhere else in the universe), and I mailed my ballot for Bradfock/Burgess/Gonzalez some time ago.

• marianne November 5, 2015 (1:48 pm)

  Three more out there from our house waiting to be counted for Lisa. Mailed the ballots Saturday afternoon at post office.

• Diane November 5, 2015 (1:53 pm)

  I’m a lifelong left-wing liberal Democrat; voted “early”, meaning the day before the election
  ~
  just checked ballot tracker again https://info.kingcounty.gov/elections/ballottracker.aspx
  ~
  “November 3, 2015 general and special election Current status on 11/05/2015
  ~
  We have received your ballot, your signature has been verified, and your ballot will be counted.
  Thank you for voting.”
  ~
  hoping there are still LOTS of our lefty liberal ballots waiting to be counted

• Heidi A November 5, 2015 (4:45 pm)

  Fwiw, “will be counted” on ballot tracker does not mean it has not already been counted. It’s just confirmation your ballot has not been rejected for irregularities.

  • WSB November 5, 2015 (4:52 pm)

    FYI all, after many of us sat around hitting refresh refresh refresh for a while – King County Elections just announced the 4:30 pm update is canceled today, JUST the 7 pm update will be released. So, a couple more hours to wait to see how things are going in this race (and anything else you’re watching) – TR

• Tom Koch November 5, 2015 (4:58 pm)

  It is very common for the younger, leftier (is that a word) voter to cast their vote later in the cycle. For many decades, absentee voters in California and elsewhere were far more conservative than the general population. There has even been a saying in politics that every GOP candidate is “president” until about 5:00 PM on election day when younger, working people vote and shift the results.

  The headline was sadly a tad misleading though. Yes, the percentage differential between Shannon and Lisa tightened. However, the actual vote differential got larger. This occurred because Shannon still beat Lisa in yesterday’s results but by a much smaller percentage. This manifested itself in a “tightening” which really wasn’t.

  However, in the second round of yesterday’s results, Lisa received 54.3%…a very significant shift from the Election Day tally. However, her margin in actual votes was only 26. For those hoping for a Lisa comeback, suffice it to say she will need a much larger percentage in the next rounds to materially close the gap.

• Anne Hagen November 5, 2015 (10:45 pm)

  Well, I voted for Lisa and drove to Greenbridge on Election Day and dropped my ballot in the ballot box. I just tracked my ballot and they don’t acknowledge my voting. It only says the ballot was mailed to me.
  Hopefully, eventually, it and many others will be acknowledged and processed.
  I’ve never liked candidates conceding defeat before the votes were counted to the point where it was truly known who is the winner.
  Just have to wait.

Sorry, comment time is over.