Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant defeats recall effort
Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has thwarted an effort to recall her from office after a 10-day vote count.
Supporters of Sawant — Seattle’s only socialist council member and the first in the city’s history to have a recall ballot against her — narrowly outdid those in favor of a recall, claiming 50.4% of the vote.
On Thursday, just 306 of the 41,000 votes counted separated Sawant from the recall effort, with results to be certified on Friday.
Any challenged ballots resolved between the time votes were counted on Thursday afternoon and the 4:30 p.m. deadline — about a two hour window — will be added to the count before certification, according to King County Elections Chief of Staff Kendall Hodson.
That number is unlikely to change the results.
Sawant, a third-term council member representing District 3, claimed an apparent victory last Friday, though the race was too close to call with hundreds of outstanding challenged ballots.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-defeats-recall-effort/
