First Asian To Win A San Francisco Mayoral Election
Incumbent Ed Lee has become the first Asian to win a San Francisco mayoral race with 61.21% of the vote. It must be especially gratifying for a person who hasn’t won any election of note. And although he pledged not to run in this race, his “awe-shucks” simple demeanor won over many who saw him as a perfect representative for San Francisco – Asian, not publicity seeking, can do, practical person.
The following was written on Wednesday, November 9th.
But the race is not over as Lee did not garner a majority, meaning that ranked-choice voting will go into effect to decide a winner. Lee currently has 31 percent of the vote. In second is Supervisor John Avalos, who has over 18 percent of the vote followed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera with a little over 11 percent of the vote.
The ranked-choice system allows voters to select their top three choices in each race. If a majority is not reached, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated from the race and his or her supporters’ second-choice will be added to the totals for the remaining candidates. This continues until a majority is reached.
Just last year in the Oakland mayoral race, pre-election front runner and former state Senator Don Perata held a commanding lead over the other nine contenders with 33 percent of votes in the first round, but eventually lost to Jean Quan in the tenth round of voting.
With even more candidates in this year’s mayor’s race in San Francisco, it may be a bit harder for someone to come from such a larger deficit.
San Francisco voting officials are expected to make the preliminary tally of ranked-choice results available Wednesday afternoon.
Photo Credit: Ed Lee, via Flickr
