How Wilson-Harrell contest ranks among Seattle's closest mayor races
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This year's race between Katie Wilson and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell appears to be the city's closest mayoral contest in more than a century, with Wilson beating Harrell by less than one percentage point in the latest count.
The big picture: As things stood Wednesday, you'd have to go back to the early 1900s to find a tighter mayoral contest in the Emerald City, an Axios analysis finds.
The latest: As of Wednesday's count, Wilson led Harrell by 1,976 votes, capturing 50.19% to his 49.48%, narrowly putting her out of mandatory recount territory.
- With few ballots left to count in the Nov. 4 vote-by-mail election, The Seattle Times called the race in Wilson's favor Wednesday.
- If results hold, Wilson will become the third woman elected Seattle mayor.
Flashback: This year's race has been a nailbiter, but it's not nearly as close as Seattle's 1906 mayoral election, according to Seattle city records.
- In that year's race, William Hickman Moore defeated Jonathan Riplinger by 15 votes — a margin of less than 0.1 percentage points.
- Excluding this year's contest, the next tightest mayoral race in Seattle history was in 1912, when George F. Cotterill beat Hiram C. Gill by 804 votes, or 1.3 percentage points.
Yes, but: Nine other mayoral contests in the late 1800s were decided by fewer than 100 votes — although because the Seattle electorate was so small back then, those ballots made up a significant chunk of the total.
Case in point: In 1873, John Collins defeated Henry Yesler by 10 votes — a difference of 3.4 percentage points.
- Only 298 Seattleites voted in that mayoral election, held four years after the city's incorporation.
What's next: Results from this year's mayoral race won't be final until after certification, which is scheduled for Nov. 25.