Bruce Harrell appeared headed to victory in the Seattle mayoral race with additional votes counted Wednesday in the city and in local contests around the area.
About 46,000 more ballots were tallied across King County, including about 21,000 in Seattle, making slight changes to the new political picture that began emerging shortly after Tuesday’s ballot deadline.
At least 95,000 ballots still need to be counted in Seattle, with large tallies likely on Thursday and Friday.
On Wednesday, Harrell maintained a 29-percentage-point lead over M. Lorena González. He now has 64% of the vote, down from 65% on election night.
González claimed 38% of the ballots counted Wednesday. She probably needs to win two-thirds of the remaining votes or more to catch up with Harrell, according to a Seattle Times analysis.
González ran as a self-described progressive and Harrell as more of a moderate, in the Seattle political context.
In recent years, Seattle results have swung as much as 12 percentage points for left-lane candidates after election night, with younger supporters returning their ballots later. None have swung 30 points, however.
Other Seattle races
Voter turnout has reached 39% across King County and cracked 50% in Seattle, according to King County Elections.
In the Seattle city attorney race, Ann Davison still leads Nicole Thomas-Kennedy with 58%, down less than a percentage point from Tuesday. Thomas-Kennedy secured 45% of the ballots counted Wednesday.
In the race for Position 8 on the Seattle City Council, incumbent Teresa Mosqueda increased her election night total of 52% to 53% in her race against Kenneth Wilson.
In the race for Position 9 on the council, Sara Nelson still leads Nikkita Oliver with 60%, down less than a percentage point from election night. Oliver won 43% of the ballots counted Wednesday.
King County
In the race for King County executive, incumbent Dow Constantine stayed ahead of Joe Nguyen with 57%, the same as Tuesday night.
In a marquee Metropolitan King County Council race, incumbent Kathy Lambert still trails Sarah Perry by 11 percentage points.
Four other council incumbents — Rod Dembowski, Reagan Dunn, Dave Upthegrove and Pete von Reichbauer — each maintained large leads over their challengers Wednesday.
Port of Seattle
Incumbent Port Commissioner Ryan Calkins continued cruising to victory over Norman Sigler. He maintained 73% of the vote in their race Wednesday.
Incumbent Stephanie Bowman now leads Hamdi Mohamed by only 4,020 votes, with Mohamed closing Bowman’s narrow advantage slightly.
Meanwhile, Toshiko Grace Hasegawa took a 275-vote lead Wednesday against Peter Steinbrueck, overcoming Steinbrueck’s narrow lead on Tuesday night.
Bellevue
In Bellevue, Mayor Lynne Robinson still leads Dr. Gina Johnson for Position 6 on the City Council with 70%.
Council incumbent Conrad Lee still leads Dexter Borbe in the Position 2 race with 56%.
And Deputy Mayor Jared Nieuwenhuis still leads Ruth Lipscomb in the Position 4 race with 58%.
Bellevue council members choose a mayor and deputy mayor among themselves every two years.
Data journalist Manuel Villa contributed to this report.
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