Remarkable drama in local journalism, where KUOW's election results provider appears to have prematurely called the race for Harrell, to the bafflement of most people plugged in to local elections.

maybe we could help count some dang votes in king county

Thursday, November 6th, ballot drop is in from King County Elections. Mayor of Seattle: Katie Wilson improved to 46.93%. Bruce Harrell dropped to 52.64%. 33rd District: Progressive State Representative Edwin Obras has overtaken conservative Democrat Kevin Schilling and now leads, 49.69% to 48.62%.

The Scarlet Pumpernickel

Just to be clear - I think we've got drop box ballots here, just not sure if it's all drop box ballots or includes still some earlier ones.

SDOT's climate denial looks like:

hey if pioneer square station wasn't a cavernous void that people use maybe 5% of, we'd get distracted from the important AI sketchers ads!

Sound Transit prefers station activation consisting entirely of blaring computer voice announcements every 5 seconds, cavernous empty stations, and bare-bones digital signage that’s often wrong. It’s not like we’re a city that loves getting a little coffee or anything.

One significant factor driving this difference is America’s unusual habit of requiring two staircases in buildings taller than three stories. New research indicates that this practice increases costs without increasing safety.

The Mariners’ season may be over, but Seattle residents are still waiting on dramatic dumps that change the course of a contest in favor of the underdog

My take? @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social is still the favorite. Until we have Thursday drop data (assuming it is election day dropbox data), we have no good reason to think otherwise, even if we do have reason to FEEL nervous. rondezvouswa.com/p/katie-wils...

TransLink in Vancouver has a cool retail program to put more cafes and mini markets in their stations and transit exchanges. What a cool idea! Can we copy it in Seattle? buzzer.translink.ca/2025/02/tran...

Thunder in Ballard!

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell gained another point on progressive challenger Katie Wilson in today's ballot drop, which added about ~21,000 ballots. She trails by 8 points. Expected bigger counts tomorrow and Friday, which are typically more progressive-favoring. Comeback still possible.

According to King County elections they had "a LOT" of dropbox activity in this election (emphasis theirs). They expect there's probably another 230-235K ballots countywide, so probably 115K or so in Seattle. Tonight will be a drop of 50-55K countywide, 25K or so in Seattle.

If the sandwich don’t split, you must acquit

Which is another way of saying that the bulk of Wilson's advantage came in later in the vote tabulating process. On election night only 45% of her eventual votes were counted, compared to 54% of Harrell's. That gap stayed pretty large until about the 4th day of counting (Friday). [3/n]

Did you mean to say she outgained him by 17k between primary night and final primary tally? Seems to match the graph.

UPDATE: the incumbent school board, who voted against the ban on trans girls and is now facing the mother of the complaining student, is leading in results so far.

Here's a look at the raw numbers in the Seattle mayoral contest, with 2021 for scale. Harrell has lost a lot of ground from his 2021 win. Wilson gained 17,221 votes more than Harrell between the primary and general. That would be more than enough to eliminate the 8,319 vote gap here.

New York and Seattle might both elect socialist mayors who rent and don’t own cars tonight

Saw a bunch of folks using the ballot drop box by the Ballard library on my little lunch break walk. It’s a beautiful day in Seattle to elect a new mayor and ditch our disaster of a council president.

They're out there, and they're voting.

That’s right

It is absolutely remarkable that multiple states — including at least one with a Republican governor — are fully backstopping November SNAP payments, but Governor Doge Ferguson again has failed to meet the moment. What a profound disappointment of a first year as Governor.

Today I'm calling on @governorferguson.bsky.social to declare a state of emergency: the expiration of SNAP benefits for nearly one million Washingtonians will be a disaster for the health of many, and for the economic health of the state. We must join other state governments and act swiftly.

I believe we can make the Seattle Streetcar look more like the video on the left, and run it as a complete line. And it's a much better idea than tearing it all up.

Seattle’s RapidRide bus upgrade program is a scheduling and funding nightmare. These projects turn into huge utility upgrading efforts and chasing the federal funds take decades. We would be better off painting the Bus Only lanes now while we wait for design and finding to be complete

Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck is once again the only Seattle elected official with a positive job performance rating Likely November 2025 general election voters in Seattle aren't satisfied with the performance of their elected officials, with one exception: Councilmember Alexis Mercedes…

We know people want to ride transit here. Why do we keep building more car capacity?

If Bruce Harrell squeaks out a win in two weeks, I for one will never forget the contempt that he readily showed for wide swaths of the city in service of doing it.

Watching a crowd of people wait to cross Leary to get to the Ballard Farmers’ Market because SDOT used transit funds to turn a crosswalk from cross-whenever to signaled without reducing car traffic at all. So cool

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion. As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

Fuck, man. This is water in a desert. Thank you, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social. I’m rooting for you.

When Wales lowered its default speed limit from 30 mph to 20, it created a perfect natural experiment. England, a nearby jurisdiction did not. 👀 You can see road deaths declined by 25% in Wales after the policy was implemented. Via @20splenty.bsky.social www.20splenty.org/gb2024stats

Thank you, WA AG Nicholas W. Brown, for standing with your colleagues on this. #TransRightsAreHumanRights (FYI, @fusewashington.org - this might interest you.)

It’s a bit harsh to think about but if any major seismic event happened here we would probably permanently lose 20,000 homes over situations like this. A lot of old apartments are build on land community councils and planners downzoned so they can never be rebuilt

!!!! go listen!!!!!!!!!!!

In addition to Ron's point, requiring deep front yards in residential areas discourages businesses and stores that rely on visibility for foot traffic.

absolute disaster piece of legislation here. maritza rivera just killed housing in seattle

SDOT has confirmed with us that they did not consider mode shift when studying bus lanes on Denny Way. How can Seattle claim to be "transit first" when their traffic studies completely ignore it? We can't effectively build transit if we assume no one will ever use it.

Always a good night when I feel the need to put on Andrew Bird

If you’ve always wanted to see someone drive stick shift for the first time while drinking an open cup of the hottest coffee you’ve ever seen, Florida football may be for you

The new West Coast Health Alliance is a good step forward for #Cascadia, but we need to plan now for cuts to Obamacare by funding a universal health care system in Oregon & Washington. My latest for Cascadia Journal: cascadia-journal.ghost.io/an-alliance-...

Waves is out now Earlier this year I was in a bad mental state, and seriously considered giving up on music many times. But I persisted and I'm here now with a collection of works that are very personal to me. If you take a listen... thank you. #bandcampfriday cristata.bandcamp.com/album/waves

The latest DOOM LOOP: "Rob's Got Concerns"

Health officials: these corridors are loud and hazardous to your health City planners: these corridors are transit oriented and we should put housing there Would you want to live there? I wouldn’t. www.axios.com/local/portla...