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Orion will have work cut out as Sawant shows her usual ‘late voter’ strength in District 3

Orion showing off his political muscle on Election Night

Challenger Egan Orion was feeling strong on Election Night but the ongoing updates of totals for the District 3 primary show that he will need every bit of his political muscle to catch — and keep up — with incumbent Kshama Sawant and her Socialist Alternative-powered “get out the vote” final kick.

Final tallies won’t be certified until next week, but with updates slowing to a trickle, it seems safe to say Sawant will finish above 36% of the vote. That means the incumbent City Council member has stretched her lead by nearly 4 points thanks to yet another strong performance with late voters. In tallies since Election Night, Sawant has claimed more than 40% of the vote.

Second place finisher Orion, who is set to join Sawant in the November General Election race, has lost ground since Election Night but will still claim more than 21% of the vote. He has tallied around 18% of ballots counted after the initial Election Night tally.

Pat Murakami, meanwhile, might just hold on for a third place finish though Zachary Dewolf has been inching up behind her and now trails the Beacon Hill business owner and neighborhood advocate by a mere 132 votes. Unfortunately, in this race, third place gets you little more than a note in the neighborhood news blog.

District 3, we should note, has clawed its way back to the top as Seattle’s most voting-est district, producing a near-47% turnout as of the latest counts.

CHS reported on the Election Night victories for Sawant and Orion as the political battle between social progressives and pro-business liberals is set to play out in a contest sure to further cement Seattle’s vaunted place as a Socialist Hellhole(tm).

As for forecasting November totals based on the Primary, it’s unlikely to be as simple of adding the more centrist candidate totals to Orion’s numbers and the more liberal to Sawant’s. Voters, you probably can attest, sort out a variety of strategies when voting in a top-two primary. Sometimes, that strategy is to simply vote for the best candidate. Other times, a vote might have more to do with who you *don’t* want to win. For now, It’s probably most realistic to start with a 50/50 prediction.

Both candidate camps have gone mostly quiet to end August. Both Sawant’s committee meetings — the Select Committee on Homelessness and Housing Affordability and the Human Services, Equitable Development, and Renter Rights Committee sessions — were canceled leading into the body’s late summer break. Expect to see things swing back into action with a wave of forums starting next month including the GSBA’s event at the Broadway Performance Hall on September 10th.

 

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7 Comments
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Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer
4 years ago

Nice job on turnout, D3.

RWK
RWK
4 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Packer

A 47% turnout is not a “nice job.” It’s way less than it should be. Why are so many apathetic?

Glenn
Glenn
4 years ago

Turnout citywide is pathetic. Such high levels of education and such low levels of participation seem incongruous, but apparently not. As I mentioned earlier, it seems many people skipped their Civics class and don’t understand how democracy works in this city.

iluvcaphill
iluvcaphill
4 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

I think educated people are so underwhelmed with the lack of quality of candidates that they just don’t bother because it will literally make no difference. The homeless problem isn’t new and the last two city councils haven’t been able to even make a small dent. It is highly unlikely that the next council will make a difference either.

Sluggo
Sluggo
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

Wow, so you are arguing that non-voters are actually more “educated” than voters. Could you please define what you mean by “educated”?

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

Wow, sluggo. I sure hope you never end up in a jury pool. How you leaped to that conclusion is a real head scratcher.

Sluggo
Sluggo
4 years ago
Reply to  iluvcaphill

Jim98122x, let me break this down for you. Glenn complains that there are such high levels of education but low voter turnout. iluvcaphill asserts that educated people don’t bother to vote which, by implication, accounts for the low voter turnout. If educated people aren’t voting then who exactly is voting? Do you not understand the logic?
Thank you for your snide comment.