Associated Press
SEATTLE — City Attorney Mark Sidran has closed King County Councilman Greg Nickels’ lead in the mayor’s race to 1,640 votes, King County elections officials said Tuesday.
Sidran won about 14,000, or 57 percent, of the nearly 25,000 ballots cast for either candidate in the latest tally of absentee votes. Overall, Nickels has 50.6 percent of the vote, or 67,674, to Sidran’s 49.4 percent, or 66,034.
Sidran issued a statement saying: "We’re continuing to gain votes. This race is far from over."
In all, 25,420 ballots were counted in the batch announced Tuesday, but only 24,739 contained votes for either mayoral candidate. An estimated 35,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted, elections superintendent Julie Anne Kempf said.
If the final results show the candidates to be within 0.5 percentage points of each other, there will be an automatic recount. The next batch of absentee results was to be announced Thursday, and results were to be certified Nov. 21.
Any recount would take place after that.
"It’s going to be a close election. Everybody knew that going in," said Nickels campaign manager Marco Lowe. "We’re still in the lead. We’re looking forward to Thursday’s tally."
Nickels led by 7,200 votes — 54 percent to 46 percent — on election night. That lead has been shrinking as additional absentee ballots have been counted.
The campaign focused on the region’s transportation mess and the stylistic differences between Sidran, a conservative Democrat, and Nickels, a liberal one.
Sidran, whose support of "civility laws" has angered civil libertarians, presented himself as the strong leader Seattle needs to bring it out of rocky times.
Nickels, whose work on the troubled Sound Transit light rail project has been roundly criticized by Sidran, touted himself as the candidate who understands the consensus-building "Seattle way," and local priorities.
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