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The political divides across Capitol Hill and the Central District are as strong as ever. The precinct by precinct results from the December 7th District 3 recall vote once again reveal strong divisions between the area’s most densely populated and least wealthy areas and its richest, single family zoning dominated neighborhoods.
It did with those voting against the recall of Kshama Sawant dominating precincts to the south while “yes” votes dominated in the north.
But another important line of demarcation was also made clear in December’s results.
The line running north-south along 31st Ave — the Madrona line? — is also a distinct border zone between the district’s more progressive and more conservative voters nearer to the shores of Lake Washington. Continue reading →
UPDATE 4:45 PM: Kshama Solidarity announced they have decided to postpone Sunday’s party:
Because of rapid developments with the omicron variant of COVID-19, our campaign has made the decision to postpone our Victory Party (previously scheduled for tomorrow evening). Because of the highly transmissible nature of the new variant, we feel this is an unfortunate but necessary step, even with the Covid-19 safety measures we had prepared for the event.
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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
Kshama Sawant’ssuccessful defense of her District 3 seat on the Seattle City Council was certified by King County Elections Friday.
The final gap was 310 votes out of 41,158 ballots cast and, barring a last-minute recount request, keeps the longest serving, three-time elected member of the council in office to continue her term through 2023 and the next district election.
King County Elections officials said Friday that the unprecedented December recall election also saw some unprecedented levels of participation. First, overall turnout including challenged ballots climbed above 53%, higher than estimates heading into the unusual December 7th vote. Continue reading →
For some, it was a vote against recalls and political shenanigans. For others, their “no” votes were pledges of continued belief in her willingness to fight and lead on behalf of the working class and tenants. The math has been worked out. Kshama Sawant will not be recalled and can continue her term — her third on the Seattle City Council — through 2023.
Thursday, King County Elections released the final count of ballots in the District 3 recall before the vote is certified and made official on Friday ending two weeks of tallying and ballot challenges since the December 7th election.
The last tally shows No ahead by 306 votes — good enough for 50.37% of the vote and the majority required to stave off the recall.
As of Thursday afternoon, 385 ballots remained challenged. Elections officials say, in all, 820 ballots were challenged in this election, and the office typically sees about half of those issues resolved. Just over 53% have been cured so far. By Friday afternoon’s certification, a handful of additional ballots challenged over missing or non-matching signatures may also be added to the totals if any last minute cure forms were submitted. But those small updates will be inconsequential. Kshama Solidarity’s December 19th “Victory Party” at Chop Suey can go off as planned.
Still holding out hope for the recall side? “Results are not final until they are posted tomorrow after certification,” a King County Elections spokesperson informs.
“Sawant’s win is both an inspiration for embattled progressives everywhere and a road map of how to fight back aggressively and win,” Jonathan Rosenblum, a community organizer who works in her City Hall office, writes in an essay that appeared Thursday in The Nation. “And it’s all the more remarkable because this was a special election, engineered to suppress working-class turnout, with anti-Sawant forces scheduling the election between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
“It appears,” Sawant said as her campaign declared an “apparent victory” in a press conference last week, “we have defeated the combined efforts of big business, the right wing, the corporate media, the courts, and the political establishment who sought to remove our socialist council office by any means necessary
Even so, the story of the Solidarity campaign’s defense of Sawant’s seat representing Capitol Hill, the Central District, and surrounding neighborhoods could still have an epilogue. Elections officials say a recount can be requested under state law until 4:30 PM two business days after certification. Continue reading →
With a possible fourth political victory in the city lined up, CHS asked Sawant if it was time to take her movement to a higher office (Image: CHS)
Time to party? (Image: CHS)
Kshama Sawant did not declare outright victory Friday morning. But the campaign to defend the socialist leader against the District 3 recall is throwing a “Victory Party” at Capitol Hill club Chop Suey next week.
In addition to the December 19th party, Kshama Solidarity announced it was also launching an effort to connect with voters of the some 500 or so remaining ballots challenged over issues like missing or mis-matched signatures.
Thursday, CHS reported on the third day of vote counts in the December 7th recall election as “no” is now leading by just over 200 votes with the hundreds of challenged ballots still to cure and count.
“Yesterday afternoon’s ballot count showed our socialist campaign in Seattle taking a lead of 232 votes,” Sawant said Friday morning during a press conference in front of 21st Ave’s New Hope Baptist Church in the Central District. “It appears we have defeated the combined efforts of big business, the right wing, the corporate media, the courts, and the political establishment who sought to remove our socialist council office by any means necessary.”
“In other words,” Sawant said, “the wealthy and their representatives in politics and the media took their best shot at us, and we beat them. Again.”
The campaign is referring to the results as an “apparent victory.”
UPDATE 12/10/21 3:40 PM: King County Elections added another 87 to the counted pile Friday afternoon with 52 “no” votes in the mix pushing the anti-recall total percentage up by a few decimals. The recall is now being defeated by 249 votes. The total of challenged ballots is now down to 573. Meanwhile, the elections turnout report shows nearly 170 of those challenged ballots arrived too late to be counted making it even more unlikely the curing process will put “yes” back on top.
The margin represents what would be a razor thin victory — 249 out of 40,716 votes, or 0.61%.
UPDATE 4 PM: In a statement from campaign manager Henry Bridger, the Recall Sawant campaign said it would continue to make sure every challenged ballot was counted but admitted its effort “will likely fall short of removing Sawant from office.”
The full reversal of Election Night’s big lead was completed Thursday as “no” on recall vote totals climbed above 50% putting District 3 representative Kshama Sawant a step closer to keeping her seat on the Seattle City Council.
Thursday’s tally was relatively tiny, covering only 1,300 or so ballots but the overall impact was strong as 67% of the day’s count fell for “no,” pushing the pro-Sawant votes to a slim 232 vote lead.
A spokesperson for Sawant’s campaign declined to comment on Thursday’s tally and said they would have more to say Friday morning.
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 around 1,200 ballots left to process. Challenged ballots will also be an important factor.
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.
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. Continue reading →
(Images: Kshama Solidarity — top / Ella Li — bottom)
The PAC set up to help recall Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has been released from campaign contribution limits and is using the cash on strategies including a $10,000 TV ad getting heavy play during NFL and sports broadcasts in the city thanks to a $100,000 Comcast advertising buy.
CHS reported here on the formation of theA Better Seattle political action committee and early contributors led by the state PAC of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association, and Matt Griffin, principal at the Pine Street Group, the developer behind the $2 billion downtown convention center expansion.
Last week, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission granted the PAC’s request to be released from campaign contribution limits after a court ruling that the release would not impede voter participation in the December 7th election that will determine only if Sawant is recalled and not determine her possible replacement. Continue reading →
Turnout in the district’s north and along Lake Washington is off to a strong start (Image: King County Elections)
D3 recall ballots received by date (Image: King County Elections)
Supporters of Kshama Sawant have said driving strong voter turnout in the recall election falling between two major holiday periods will be the key to keeping the Socialist Alternative council member in office.
With one week of voting left in the December 7th District 3 recall, more than 21,000 people have already voted. But the strong early turnout could be a sign of major challenges ahead for the political veteran.
According to King County Elections, turnout in the election is already approaching 28% driven by strong by-mail voting in wealthy areas like Broadmoor and along the shores of Lake Washington. So far, the county has received 21,366 ballots. The district has 77,200 registered voters. Continue reading →
The Kshama Solidarity campaign held a “block party” get out the vote event Sunday in a Capitol Hill park
“Yes” endorsements from “religious and community leaders,” what a Kshama Solidarity block party looked like, and the cost of a recall election — here are the latest updates in the December 7th recall election.
‘Joint Statement’ — The Recall Sawant campaign weighed in Tuesday with a Thanksgiving message from “OVER 70 RELIGIOUS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS” condemning Sawant’s “illegal actions” and “damaging rhetoric and calling for a “yes” vote on the December 7th ballot. The full “Joint Statement from the Jewish, Black, and Asian Communities” sent out by Recall Sawant is below. It includes a roster of signatories apparently organized by community and quotes Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, 16:20 — “Justice, justice you shall pursue.” Recall supporters are also likely big fans of Deuteronomy 6:9 — “Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
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The political divides across Capitol Hill and the Central District are as strong as ever. The precinct by precinct results from the December 7th District 3 recall vote once again reveal strong divisions between the area’s most densely populated and least wealthy areas and its richest, single family zoning dominated neighborhoods.
