SF mayor's race: Ranked choice puts Mark Leno in lead over London Breed
Former state Sen. Mark Leno pulled into first place in the race for San Francisco mayor early Wednesday, as ranked-choice redistribution of losing candidates’ votes enabled him to overcome Supervisor London Breed’s early advantage.
After all the ranked-choice votes were sorted, Leno had 50.42 percent to Breed’s 49.58 percent. There are still an unknown number of votes to be counted, however — the Elections Department will accept mail ballots that arrive as late as Friday. The total still outstanding could be in the thousands.
Either way, the winner will be a first for San Francisco: Leno would be the first openly gay mayor, and Breed would be the first African American woman to hold the job.
When the first-place votes were counted Tuesday night, Breed was on top with 35.6 percent to Leno’s 25.9 percent, Supervisor Jane Kim’s 22.8 percent and former Supervisor Angela Alioto’s 7.6 percent.
But Leno and Kim had encouraged each other’s supporters to list the other as their second-place choice, and it paid off big time for Leno — he received 77 percent of Kim’s second-place votes.
Who will ultimately step into the city’s top job probably won’t be known for several days because of the ranked-choice system, under which the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and his or her votes are redistributed to supporters’ second choices. The Elections Department plans to issue daily count updates at 4 p.m.
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Breed-takes-lead-over-Leno-Kim-in-earliest-12970895.php?t=20fbbac58c
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