Nikkita Oliver gained slightly on Cary Moon today in the race for second place in Seattle’s mayoral primary election. Moon now leads Oliver by 1,664 votes, 571 fewer than after the last ballot drop on Friday.
As it stands, Moon has won 17.6 percent of the vote so far and Oliver has 16.68 percent. Both candidates trail Jenny Durkan, who has 28 percent of the vote. The top two vote getters in the primary will face off in the November general election.
Oliver’s campaign is currently “ballot chasing,” helping voters whose ballots haven’t been counted because they didn’t sign their ballot or the signature didn’t match the one the county elections department has on file.
Durkan has said she supports the Oliver campaign’s ballot counting efforts and Moon has encouraged her supporters to help the effort.
Though things are getting closer, it will be difficult for Oliver to surpass Moon. According to King County Elections Chief of Staff Kendall Hodson, there are just 1,803 outstanding signature challenges in the city. There are also about 1,600 alternative format ballots still to be counted across all of King County.
In a statement today, Moon said only, “I am grateful for all of the support for a different kind of leadership for Seattle. I will make another statement after every vote is counted.”
Oliver said in a statement her campaign is “far from conceding.”
“I believe in letting the process play itself out,” Oliver said, “so we’ll wait until every vote is counted. We’re moving in the right direction, and we have faith that the voters of Seattle want us in the general election”
This post has been updated.
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