A Week After Election, District 1 Supervisor Race Still Too Close To Call [Updated]

A Week After Election, District 1 Supervisor Race Still Too Close To Call [Updated]Marjan Philhour (left) and Sandra Lee Fewer. (Photos: Facebook)
Nikki Collister
Published on November 15, 2016

One week after San Franciscans cast their ballots, we've seen re-elections for Supervisors Peskin, Breed, and Yee, a victory for Hillary Ronen in District 9, and a rather tight contest between Kimberly Alvarenga and projected winner Ahsha Safai in District 11.

Yet one Supervisor race remains too close to call. In District 1, 10 candidates were in the running to replace termed-out Supervisor Eric Mar, but in the end, it's come down to two top contenders: moderate candidate Marjan Philhour and progressive school board member Sandra Lee Fewer.

By the end of election night, Philhour and Fewer were separated by a mere 651 votes, with Fewer in the lead.

As the San Francisco Department of Elections continues to count vote-by-mail and provisional ballots, the two candidates have both taken to social media to express thanks to their supporters.

"Whether or not the final result turns out in our favor, I am proud of the positive, neighborhood-focused campaign we ran together," Philhour remarked in a letter on Facebook. 

She also made note of the absentee and provisional votes yet to be counted. "Since this race remains fairly tight ... we will continue to watch releases from the Department of Elections with interest." 

Fewer published a statement of her own, in which she thanked "the hundreds of volunteers and supporters who dedicated their time and resources" to her campaign, and remained optimistic on Twitter last week:

The Department of Elections continues to release daily vote count updates at approximately 4pm. The latest, as of November 14th, has Fewer in the lead with 9,715 votes (39.17%), versus Philhour's 8,752 (35.29%).

According to the Department's most recent update, ballot processing will continue "daily through Wednesday [November 23rd] of next week." Should one of the candidates reach a majority vote before then, she will be declared the winner of the District 1 seat.

Update, 11/15, 6:00pm: Updated numbers have been released from the Department of Elections, showing Fewer with 10,612 votes (39.51%) and Philhour with 9,459 (35.22%). 

Clarification, 11/16: The numbers above reflect the first round of ranked choice results only, and do not take into account the subsequent elimination rounds that place Fewer at 52.60% of the vote (to Philhour's 47.40%) as of November 15. A spokesperson for the Department of Elections has stated that the ranked choice results are subject to change as ballots are counted, and that no winner has been certified by the Department yet. We'll update this story when final results are announced. 

Updated, 11/21: On November 21, Sandra Lee Fewer was announced the winner of the District 1 Supervisor race, with the most recent update from the Department of Elections placing her 1,400 votes ahead of Marjan Philhour. In a Facebook post on Monday night, Fewer thanked her supporters, campaign volunteers, and fellow District 1 candidates "who made the race lively and focused on real issues." Fewer will be sworn into office the second week of January.