The masked crowd and media at the Kshama Solidarity event at Chop Suey as Tuesday’s first count came in
The Election Night first count of ballots in the recall of Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant revealed that supporters weren’t kidding when they said they would need “the biggest get out the vote campaign the city has ever seen” to keep the District 3 representative in office.
The first count of the District 3 recall ballots Tuesday night showed “yes” on the recall on top with 53% of the tallied vote, leading by just under 2,000 votes. But those votes and six percentage points may very well be an impossible goal — even with the district’s propensity for left-leaning late votes. The challenge? The first count included 32,000 ballots. King County Elections totals show nearly 35,000 ballots were received as of 6 PM meaning the Sawant camp will need to produce a massive showing for “no” votes as the few thousand remaining ballots are processed. If turnout truly hits 50% as predicted by officials, about 6,000 ballots are up for grabs — Sawant will need more than 67% of them to have voted “no.”
UPDATE 12/8/2021 4:15 PM: 62% — Sawant ‘no’ on recall tally gets big boost in second day’s count, now trails by less than 300 votes: In need of claiming 62% of the vote in remaining ballots, Kshama Sawant’s latest election count comeback took shape Wednesday as King County Elections added 7,000 new ballots to its tally in the District 3 recall election with, yes, just over 62% of the latest votes coming in for the “no” camp. What comes next will be a nail biter — there are only about 1,200 more ballots to process. Challenged ballots will also be an important factor.
UPDATE 12/8/2021 10:15 AM: King County Elections says it expects Wednesday’s count to add 6,000 ballots and subsequent counts to add around another 2,800 putting just under 9,000 ballots in play. With that math, Sawant must claim at least 62% of the remaining vote to retain her seat. Total turnout will have hit 53%.
The final numbers could be a neck and neck race and challenged ballots are likely to take on heightened importance. In early voting, the number of “challenged” ballots over issues like signature matches, disproportionately affected younger voters with more than 2% of ballots returned by voters 25-34 facing challenges vs. less than 1% of those from voters 65+. 18 to 24-year-olds, meanwhile, saw around 4.9% of their ballots challenged. Typically, King County says about 1.5% of ballots will be challenged in any election. Voters will have weeks until certification to verify issues like signature matches but many will not be aware or go through the effort to verify.
CHS discussed the latest updates Wednesday morning with Converge Media’s Morning Update Show:
Tuesday night in front of supporters, Sawant expressed optimism that her past success among late voters would prevail.
“In every one of our elections, there has been a dramatic swing after Election Night in our direction,” Sawant said. “Given the unprecedented nature of this undemocratic December election, while we cannot be sure of the final result, if past trends hold, it appears working people may have prevailed in this fight.”
The next update will come by Wednesday at 4 PM, officials said.
Only voters in District 3 — encompassing Capitol Hill, First Hill, the Central District, Montlake, Madison Valley, and Madison Park — are participating. If the majority of D3 voters choose yes on the recall, the council will select a temporary replacement until the next general election in the city. The winner in that vote next November would finish Sawant’s current term through the end of 2023.
Kshama speaks… pic.twitter.com/LiMsxkhhPB
— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) December 8, 2021
The Kshama Solidarity campaign defending Sawant gathered at Capitol Hill’s Chop Suey for a large event complete with vaccination and mask requirements plus mandatory temperature checks as socialist speakers and community activists took the stage in the lead-up to the first release of numbers to speak out against “corporate landlords” and Seattle Police’s “violations of the Geneva Convention.” “Which side are you on?” one speaker asked.
The Recall Sawant did not publicly announce a location for an Election Night gathering. The campaign stopped replying to CHS’s inquiries this week but has continued to post comments on the news website and on the site’s social media.
“Today is JUDGMENT DAY,” the Recall Sawant Facebook page read Tuesday. “Time for Sawant to face her constituents and be held accountable!!!”
The Kshama Solidarity campaign has been operating in a difficult arena, trying to drive turnout among the district’s youngest, most transient voters with on the ground tactics including “grassroots voting centers” in an unprecedented special election. The December 7th vote has fallen in the middle of the holiday season after the Recall Sawant campaign failed to meet deadlines to be part of the November General Election and decided to target a December vote. Pandemic restrictions have not made things any easier. The Solidarity campaign said one of its biggest challenges was simply informing voters than election was happening.
“It comes from exactly what the recall campaign intended — confusion and an intention of low voter turnout,” campaign representative Bryan Koulouris said.
Election Night’s first tally was dominated by early by-mail voting in the district’s more affluent north and along the wealthy shoreline of Lake Washington where support for removing Sawant is strongest and District 3 voters tend to be the most supportive of moderate and centrist candidates.
Organizers led by neighborhood opponents of the socialist city council member and powered by the financial contributions from a mix of residents and real estate developers have outlined multiple acts they say warrant Sawant’s recall including 1) using city resources to promote a Tax Amazon initiative, 2) allowing demonstrators inside City Hall during a protest in June 2020, and 3) marching to Mayor Jenny Durkan’s home address kept secret due to her past role as a federal prosecutor. A fourth charge of allowing Sawant’s Socialist Alternative political organization to influence her office’s employment decisions was rejected by the state Supreme Court.
A Recall Sawant social media post from Election Day
Sawant has admitted the Amazon tax violation and agreed to a small fine while maintaining that her actions during the June 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were justified by the cause. She has also maintained that she did not organize the march and did not know Durkan’s home address.
Critics say the recall is punishment for the longest serving member of the city council’s record as a champion for tenants rights and her actions protesting Seattle Police during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020. Many point to the recall as part of what they say is a troubling trend to turn to recalls to target popular progressive, and more left-leaning politicians. Over the summer, California voters rejected an attempted recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom leaving the state to reexamine its recall laws. In Los Angeles, new recall efforts have been launched against County District Attorney George Gascón over his progressive policies. In San Francisco, voters will consider a June recall of Chesa Boudin, the District Attorney many compared to Seattle’s unsuccessful police abolitionist City Attorney candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy.
The recall campaign maintains it has the right to recall. “I’m so proud of them for standing up to the hate the Sawantanistas have thrown at them over the last 17 months, just because they have been exercising their constitutional right to recall an elected official for breaking several laws,” campaign manager Henry Bridger wrote in a social media update.
The Sawant recall attempt also follows a failed push to oust Sawant political opponent Mayor Jenny Durkan from office. The Durkan recall fizzled when the court ruled allegations stemming from the Durkan’s administration’s response to the 2020 protests as the Seattle Police cracked down on demonstrations with force and clouds of tear gas downtown and on Capitol Hill were legally insufficient.
(Image: Alex Garland/CHS)
Money has flooded in for both the “yes” and “no” camps with just under $2 million in contributions from more than 16,000 contributors reported in the recall election. A Better Seattle, the PAC set up to help boost the recall, was been released from campaign contribution limits and has been using the cash on strategies including a $10,000 TV ad getting heavy play during NFL and sports broadcasts across the city thanks to a $100,000 Comcast advertising buy. The PAC quickly raised more than $200,000, closing the gap between the Recall Sawant campaign and the Kshama Solidarity campaign.
Unlike the December 7th recall vote which is limited to only Sawant’s D3 constituents, anybody can donate.
Kshama Solidarity has spent on mailers and posters but also a diverse set of in-the-field, get-out-the-vote costs like coffee for volunteers and wireless printers for tabling efforts where the campaign has offered to print ballots for voters who may have misplaced theirs. The group has also paid out thousands to campaign workers.
Both “yes” and “no” proponents have criticized the amount of cash coming from outside the city. According to the city’s campaign contribution data, 38% of Kshama Solidarity contributors live outside the city compared to 19% for Recall Sawant. But with 42% of its contributors in Seattle, the Solidarity campaign still has had more contributors living in the city — more than 6,700 vs. just over 4,100 contributors for Recall Sawant.
For Kshama Solidarity, the battle has been about saving Sawant’s job, yes, but also taking on the “right wing” effort to “disrupt democracy like Fox News” in Seattle. Sawant and the campaign have chosen to stick to the script, even bringing the fight to the very language of the council member’s defense that appears as the “no” statement on the ballot. “Kshama, an immigrant woman of color, is being attacked for participating in peaceful Black Lives Matter protests,” it reads. “This recall is part of the racist right-wing backlash attempting to criminalize protest nationally.”
Born in Mumbai, Sawant’s political career in Seattle was formed out of the Occupy movement when the economist was still teaching at Seattle Central and Seattle University.
Sawant’s leadership, the council member has said herself, has been focused on larger, sometimes global issues. As other district leaders have made habits of community meetings and “coffee talk,” Sawant has mostly avoided that kind of interaction in favor of rallies and protests.
At the local level, this has left Sawant open to criticism about her office’s interest and availability in neighborhood issues and day to day problems around homelessness, drug use, and street safety. Some Capitol Hill community leaders have praised her “alternative” style and leadership on issues like the minimum wage.
Still, Sawant has been phenomenally successful, last besting the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce-backed Egan Orion — and many of her same critics this time around — for her seat in 2019. That win was bolstered by a nearly unheard of turn for the 43rd District Democrats as the organization dedicated, in part, to helping get Democrats elected endorsed the Socialist Alternative candidate. Why only nearly unheard of? They did the same thing in 2015 to help Sawant defeat Urban League CEO Pamela Banks.
In October of 2013, CHS was there as an upstart challenger squared off with incumbent Richard Conlin in a debate on rent control held at Seattle Central that would set the tone for the major political upset that would remove the veteran lawmaker from office a few weeks later. That win built on causes like the $15 minimum wage, a tax on big business, and controlling rents launched Sawant’s political profile to new heights.
Today, she stands as maybe the second most recognizable socialist leader in the country. Bernie Sanders, by the way, has endorsed the “no” side in the recall.
Tuesday night, Sawant and the Solidarity campaign also continued to make it clear they were ready to go it alone, calling out fellow councilmembers Lorena González, Teresa Mosqueda, and Tammy Morales for not lifting “a finger to oppose this recall.”
On the stage, Sawant blasted González for her being unwilling to take a more progressive fight and “allowing” Bruce Harrell to win in their race for mayor.
With her campaign shifting into watch and wait mode and hopes for turnout to climb to 50% and above, Sawant ended her night with a note of hope.
“If a small revolutionary socialist organization in Seattle can beat the richest guys in the world again and again,” she said on the Chop Suey stage, “you can be sure that the organized power of the wider working class can and will change society.”
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Ahh, with any luck she’ll be out of a job soon.
Hope not!
The ultimate numbers will speak for themselves. But my understanding is that the first count had the vast majority of expected votes and that Sawants campaign has worked the streets to get people to vote early, reprinting ballots upon request and I assume direct folks to drop boxes.
If so, the ones mailed in the last 48-72 hours or so that will be showing up tomorrow and the coming days will likely be relatively few and might be more equally distributed to both sides, as compared to prior elections where there was not nearly the intense street presence, which a single district and a fairly large budget enabled. A district voter would have to be brain-dead to not know about the election and has been given ample opportunities, multiple reminders, and time to vote. Voting is simple and anyone missing a ballot was given the chance to reprint it. Sawants side worked hard and earnestly and if she loses, it is in spite of herculean efforts on her behalf.
So in the end, the pro-Recall side will likely maintain a substantial lead rather than the historical late left-leaning ballots that have closed or eliminated gaps in past electiongs, sometimes turning results. We shall see in the next several days.
Whatever happens, I hope that both sides accept the results with grace, the rhetoric cools, and the council, if the results dictate, name an interim councilperson who is measured, experienced, respected and representative of the diverse district s/he lives in and among.
I, for one, can’t wait to start submitting recalls for all of the politicians I don’t like the moment they step out of line.
Take an illegal contribution even if you paid it back including a fine? Recall.
Illegally destroy / delete text messages relating to official business that should have been part of the public record? Recall.
Coordinating with PACs and SuperPACs? That’s an act of malfeasance.
Basically, this recall is opening up a can of worms that should not have been opened, regardless of whether or not it succeeds.
Uhh, no. You’re free to submit but a judge has to agree with you that a politician’s actions violated their oath of office (the state Supreme Court also upheld that in this case 9-0). Then you can collect 10,000 valid signatures. Good luck with that!
Sounds like someone’s having a bad day.
Don’t fume too hard, Geek, even if she loses I’m sure she’ll run again in November.
Here’s an article on the socialistalternative.org website, describing how a democratic socialist government could work.
https://www.socialistalternative.org/socialism-in-the-21st-century/how-could-socialism-work/
This quote is pretty interesting:
“Nationally, regionally and locally – at every level – elected representatives would be accountable and subject to instant recall. Therefore, if the people who had elected them did not like what their representative did, they could make them stand for immediate re-election and, if they wished, replace them with someone else.“
This post made me laugh. I agree. I love that right wingers in this city get to just recall anyone that didn’t win in their district. All for what? Marching to city hall? Anyone who speeds on the highway breaks the law. Many people break the law daily. Stupid stupid reason. I voted NO
IMO the constant “right-wing recall” rhetoric is part of the reason ~50% of (obviously not just right-wing) voters are voting yes. Turns out left or center-left people don’t want to be called that every time they don’t exactly align with her.
I personally don’t think this warranted a recall, but people are clearly just tired of Sawant’s divisiveness and drama even if they like most of her policies.
Usage of “drama” makes me think misogyny over anything politically speaking. There’s no drama. People just don’t like loud women.
This post made me laugh because you think there are enough right wingers in District 3 to make any impact on this vote.
Well.. Marxism is so far left that when you are a Marxist, everyone who isn’t with you or a total anarchist is ‘right wing’…..
Not exactly appreciative of grey areas, is she. Lots of folks don’t support her are more “left leaning” than her reactive followers.
Sawant’s own organization says recalls are OK. Why was Sawant so angry about D3 having one?
“If a small revolutionary socialist organization in Seattle can beat the richest guys in the world again and again” … in one of the most cherry-picked, deepest blue districts in the nation … then your revolution and your movement has done a terrible job of communicating outside of your own base. That you already proudly said you didn’t care about.
You are in danger of losing a recall election to angry Montlake moms and 60 year old lifelong Democratic voters. All of whom you dismissed as irrelevant to “your movement.”
Perhaps maybe do some introspection and reflection and ask yourselves how you could be at risk of losing a recall election in the deepest blue district in Seattle. And consider for a moment what a terrible candidate you’d need to be in order to do that. And maybe just once listen to your opposition, instead of accusing them with false narratives and social-media-assault campaigns.
Hint: We’re not all Trump Republicans. We’re fed up normal Seattle, tired of your hate, tired of your gish-gallops and false-equvalences, tired of your deflections and take-no-prisoners style of lying and permanent combat against your neighbors in D3.
Win or lose, you already have failed at the task you claim to be fighting for. Your Revolution is a sham, your army is hollow, and half of D3 has seen enough. You should never have been in this position. Your own malfeasance, arrogance, and tone-deaf one-note polemic put you here, at risk of being voted out of office by people who would have normally supported most of your positions.
Half of D3 wants a normal representative, listening to D3’s problems, and not a play-acting fundraiser for Socialist Alternative, trotting the globe, hand out for an organization that cares not one bit for half of D3.
“Normal” to you is insanity to another person. Egan Orion is normal to you? He is an Amazon shill. Awful.
You sure drink a lot of kook-aid
Egan Orion is a 30 year local organizer for LGBTQ; he has many long-term relationships to this community. He continues to do more for D3 than Sawant ever will.
I see my call for “introspection” landed about how I expected. So Revolution. Such Movement.
Orion does more for Amazon than for D3. Perhaps you should learn about him and not play identity politics with LGBTQ. Btw the LGBTQ communities largely support Kshama. I should know, I am part of almost every LGBTQ group in CD/CH area. A lot of us do not support Egan Orion who is a capitalist and only cares about the bottom dollar.
I’m gay and in D3 I can’t stand her. Ernie Lou is gay and he filed the recall petition. Henry Bridget is gay and he’s managing the recall campaign. Where TF do you get the basis for saying that LGBTQ support Sawant?
Thanks, Below Broadway. My feelings exactly.
The no recall folks seem shocked that anyone who voted for Sawant last time would vote to recall her this time. They would be those “lifelong Dem voters” and “fed up normal Seattle” folks you mention. Their inability to do any introspection and reflection mirrors the bafflement in The Stranger following the November election. “But we can’t be wrong….”
Thank you! Divisiveness of this order reminds me more of Donald Trump than anyone else. This district has urgent problems. She is making them worse. Wanting solutions hardly makes one “right wing” but the accusation that it would is reminiscent of the same.
Excellent!
I’m a retired D5 homeowner who rents two units. I’ve never taken advantage of my tenants, and have kept the place up and the rent below market. But I’m a Slumlord.
My tenants decided to start paying the rent months late, despite getting their paychecks throughout Covid. Because they weren’t effected by Covid I couldn’t access gov’t help. But I’m a soul-crushing, money-grabbing Abuser.
I switched from lifelong Dem to Progressive during Obama’s second term, and donated more than 10% of my income to Progressive candidates last year. But I’m a racist.
Until Sawant and her spineless City Council cohort start passing laws that apply justly to all Seattleites, I’ll have to live with these Straw-Socialst CC Members; who care nothing about ANYONE with differing views, or whether their laws will actually help long-term, or that good governance isn’t the result of extremism, waving placards, or strident speeches from the stump.
Shame on the City Council for mistreating nearly half their Constituents. With Sawant’s ever-closer bullet dodging wins, it’s only a matter of time before we win Council Members who craft legislation that serves THE CITY, rather than the “Letter to Santa Claus” approach of their Public Relations Wish List decrees.
bye felicia! The intimidation tactics by her minions and simps over the last few weeks has been so ridiculous. Just let me drink my analog coffee and move all these homeless people out of here! Enough is enough! Time to get some new blood into the city government who is ready to clean up!
Homeless people who live on Capitol Hill have rights. You assume they want her to speak for them? Comments like this are why her simps and minions call sane people “right wing”.
Carol, I spent two decades doing full time work with homeless folks in Seattle. I know many people out here by name to this day and have a very intimate understanding of their situation, needs and vulnerabilities.
The manner in which homelessness has progressed in Seattle, particularly under Sawant, is dangerous. Not so much dangerous to homeowners, businesses and renters, but dangerous to the extremely vulnerable people living on the streets.
Homeless people are at a massive risk of violence. Unsanctioned encampments are places where people get assaulted, robbed and raped. Living in a tent on the sidewalk with no access to water or heat is not okay. Do you know how many people who I care about deeply that have died a completely preventable death by sleeping outside?
When encampments are swept, people are connected to services and long term shelter. When people are prohibited from pitching tents on the sidewalk, they are referred to shelters by police. When public drug use is actively discouraged, people will be less vulnerable to predators when they’re using. When none of this happens, people just stay where they are, stagnating, not receiving any kind of help. This stagnating only causes things like mental and physical health to deteriorate, it causes people to lose connection with social supports like case managers and doctors. It causes death.
People who are chronically homeless are generally without the ability to improve their situation through their own personal means. They need help from people who are trained to help them, and sometimes that help has to start with “look, you can’t stay here anymore” followed by connection to services.
If Sawant does lose, she will run in 2022. No doubt about that. Then, win or lose in 2022, she would run again in 2023 for a full term. The recall supporters will have forced upon us exhausted D3 folks two unnecessary elections (2021 and 2022) featuring their hated politician. And three elections, quite probably, in three successive years featuring Sawant! If Sawant opponents are sick of her now, just wait. I wasn’t an English major, but is this an example of irony?
What position would she run for in 2022? Her term doesn’t expire until 2023.
If she is recalled there will be a special election to determine her replacement in November of 2022. The city council appoints a replacement until then.
If Sawant loses, her council-appointed replacement would only serve until a person is elected to serve out the remaining year in the November 2022.
nice persons living in the Cap Hill area have become addicted to Sawant, like a nicotene addiction. It’s a nightmare.
Same can be said about the Recall Cult.
We jumped from 41% to 53% with the majority of those votes coming from the Sawant strongholds (judging by the shift in map colors)?
Oh, this is gonna be fun.
Dude…. As far as I can tell at the time of your comment, no further results had been released…. It’s still 53% yes…
Numbers just released, now it’s 50.3% yes, 49.7% no. She will clearly survive the recall.
Possible — but only around 1,200 ballots left to county plus 550 or so “curable” challenged ballots. Update here
Fun? If the 62% vote share holds for the ~1200 ballots to be counted, she will overcome her current deficit by very few votes. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the most senior council member, wouldn’t you say? Given that many were uneasy about a recall election and questioned the severity of the charges, this does not bode well for her political future in D3. The recall effort laid bare the deep divisions in D3, in the city, and on the city council…not a single council member endorsed her. Pretty mind boggling.
Sawant has never won her elections but overwhelming margins, but that’s not necessary to win a political office. If the recall wins, it’s not going to be a decisive margin, either. But I do regret that the recall campaign and its short-sighted supporters put all of us in D3 into this recall hell that started mid-2020 and will continue for at least through next year, should Sawant lose by a few votes (because she will run again in 2022, then in 2023.) And all for what? Many of you recall supporters admit the charges on which the recall was based were trivial. Very sad. You don’t like her personality or politics–organize, find a strong progressive candidate and defeat her when she’s up for reelection.
Funny, her side label’s it as a right wing ploy. Yeah, all the people that live in Seattle, especially Cap Hill, are all Donald Trump supporters. ;-)