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Few new votes, but Chyanne Chen keeps lead in District 11

The San Francisco Department of Elections just dropped the results of another 1,679 ballots, bringing the total of processed ballots to 390,437 — 74.76 percent of the electorate.Even though the count has been going slow so far this week, John Arntz, the director of the Department of Elections told Mission Local on Monday that they will “have most of the remaining ballot cards processed and reported this week.” San Francisco is seeing a record-low turnout this year with the total tracking to be about 77.8 percent. The average San Francisco turnout in a presidential year, going back 108 years, is 77 percent. All eyes are now on the only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor, and the fourth and last seat on the Board of Education:In District 11, Chyanne Chen kept up with her lead with 11,863 votes to her moderate […]

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District 1 Sup Connie Chan cruising to re-election; up by 1167 votes

Progressive District 1 supervisor Connie Chan is on track to defeat her moderate challenger Marjan Philhour, after today’s vote drop put her up by 1,167 votes at 51.75 percent. This likely concluded the most expensive supervisor race this year, as moderate groups saw Chan as particularly vulnerable because she beat Philhour by just 125 votes in their last contest in 2020. Almost $2.5 million was spent in the District 1 race. But it appears that Chan’s advantage has only improved. As of Nov. 11, Chan led, 17,232 to 16,065 after ranked-choice tabulation. About 34,000 votes were already counted in District 1. There were approximately 24,700 votes citywide to be counted, but the math is not there for Philhour. The race was expected to be extremely close — the two leading candidates were tied at 11,001 votes apiece after the Thursday results update — […]

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Dean Preston concedes likely defeat in San Francisco’s District 5

Tech entrepreneur and “YIMBY” candidate Bilal Mahmood is poised to unseat District 5 supervisor Dean Preston, San Francisco’s only democratic socialist now serving on the board. In the most expensive district race, political opposition groups lavishly funded the effort to “Dump Dean.”  Though some 42,000 additional citywide votes are still uncounted, Preston on Sunday evening acknowledged his dwindling chances to mitigate his vote deficit and seemed to concede the race.“I’ve spent a lifetime fighting for underdogs, often against the odds,” Preston said in a statement to Mission Local. “I wouldn’t change a minute of it. We can’t win every battle, but we’ll continue the fight.”Though Preston has continued to gain on Mahmood in first-place votes, Mahmood has maintained a lead when ranked-choice selections are counted, putting him more than 1,300 votes ahead of Preston with 52.7 percent.  “I think it’s representative of […]

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A race leapfrogs in District 11

The San Francisco Department of Elections moments ago released the results of an additional 35,979 ballots. That brings the grand total of processed ballots to 325,114 — 62.3 percent of the electorate.  There are, perhaps, 81,000 ballots remaining. The ceiling on turnout appears to be about 77.8 percent, just a shade higher than the 77 percent historical average in presidential contests going back to 1916.On to the contested Board of Supervisors racesDistrict 1 Supervisor Connie Chan and challenger Marjan Philhour are now untied. Photos by Junyao Yang on Mar. 16 and June 1, 2024.Thursday’s ballot drop resulted in the mathematical oddity of District 1 incumbent supervisor Connie Chan and challenger Marjan Philhour both having exactly 11,001 votes. The race continues to trend Chan’s way. After being up by 262 votes yesterday, today’s vote drop saw her lead rise to 558. Four years […]

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Danny Sauter, set to win District 3, had area-wide appeal

Danny Sauter leads the District 3 Supervisor race with 56 percent of the votes, leading his closest challenger Sharon Lai by 1,821 votes, according to the latest results.Though another 157,000 votes remain to be counted, ranked-choice voting experts said Sauter is unlikely to lose his commanding lead. For Lai to win, the remaining votes “would have to be very, very different to what we’ve seen so far. They have to be much more pro-Sharon,” said Jason McDaniel, San Francisco State University political science professor with a research focus on ranked-choice voting.“I don’t see that happening,” he added. Note: These results are preliminary. Table created by Kelly Waldron. Data released by the San Francisco Department of Elections on Nov. 6 at 1 a.m. Sauter, who at 36 would be one of the youngest members of the Board of Supervisors, was endorsed by […]

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District 9 analysis: How do the candidates differ?

Leer en español / 閱讀中文版We’re wrapping up our weekly “Meet the Candidates” Q&A with the District 9 candidates, and looking back at all the answers from those running to replace termed out Supervisor Hillary Ronen and how they differ on citywide and local issues. We’ve created a table to illustrate their clearest differences on mayoral picks, March propositions, the Mission street vending ban, encampment sweeps, and more. In answering most of our other weekly questions, the differences were more nuanced. To understand their stances better, we categorized the questions and summarized their answers. Click on each of the topics below to see the main takeaways.  Planters in the districtChandler supports the planters.Two candidates, Bermudez and Brown, oppose the planters.The others sidestepped the question. Hernandez and Fielder said that planters were a band-aid solution to treat the real issue of homelessness.Two, Bermudez and Torres, said the […]

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It’s Halloween in the Mission District

Tagged: community, Cultural Mission, events, Halloween, photography Emmanuel was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended UC Davis where he earned his Bachelors of Arts in Communication and Sociology with a minor in Professional Writing. He quickly pursued his masters and recently graduated from Columbia Journalism School. He enjoys exploring and spending time with friends on his free time. More by Emmanuel Fonseca Source: missionlocal.org

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How an old carwash became a key issue in S.F.’s District 5 race

A go-to criticism against District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston from his opponents — in and out of politics — is that he blocks housing. Candidates hoping to unseat him in next week’s election point to sites like 400 Divisadero St., the location of the long-shuttered Touchless Car Wash, as a prime example.  A billboard on Divisadero, paid for by the public pressure group GrowSF, reads, “That car wash should be affordable homes: Bilal Mahmood will fix it.” Mahmood and fellow supervisor candidate Scotty Jacobs doubled down on Preston bashing with a Halloween-themed mock “funeral” this weekend at the carwash site, replete with cardboard tombstones lamenting the “death” of would-be homes at different addresses around the city.But the truth is more complicated: A developer acquired 400 Divisadero St. in June, and it is expected to become more than 200 units of housing. So why […]

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District 5 candidates weigh in on school district shakeup

Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, in which we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. Four candidates are challenging incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to represent District 5, which spans from the east end of Golden Gate Park through Haight-Ashbury, Japantown and the Western Addition, the Lower Haight and Hayes Valley, and most of the Tenderloin.First we had school closures, and talks of a city intervention and a state takeover. Then we had the superintendent resign, and school closures were off the table. For our last week of questions, we asked our candidates what they think of the whole situation at San Francisco Unified School District. Bilal Mahmood Job: Founder of private and philanthropic organizations Age: 37 Residency: Tenant in District 5 since May 2023 Transportation: Walking […]

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Maria Su, head of SF Children’s Dept., picked to lead school district

The San Francisco Board of Education moments ago announced that Maria Su has agreed to take the role of superintendent for up to two years after outgoing superintendent Matt Wayne’s resignation was accepted today by a 6-1 vote. The sole dissenting vote, commissioner Kevine Boggess, felt Wayne deserved to be fired rather than resigning. Mission Local is told that Wayne will receive a year’s salary, some $325,000, and health care.Su has worked in San Francisco government for more than 18 years, with the last 15 of those coming as the head of the city’s Department of Children, Youth and their Families. She had also been serving on the school stabilization team formed by Mayor London Breed on Sept. 22. Her appointment — and the promotion of Dr. Karling Aguilera-Fort, presently the senior associate superintendent of education services, as her deputy — will be formally […]

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