As Mayoral Primary Tightens, Nikkita Oliver Recruits 'Ballot Chasers'

SEATTLE, WA - New vote totals released Friday by King County show the gap between third-place mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver and second-place finisher Cary Moon tightening. Oliver trailed Moon by 2,235 votes Friday, slightly closer than on Thursday when Oliver trailed by 2,578 votes.

Oliver released a statement Friday saying she would not concede. And, she's stepping up efforts to get her supporters involved in "ballot chasing," which involves supervising any potential challenges of ballot authenticity. Oliver supporters have alleged on social media that ballots cast for Oliver are being disqualified for things like invalid signatures.

"This is a natural extension of the campaign we set out to launch," Oliver said in a statement. "Just because election day has come and gone does not mean the process is over."

However, King County Elections on Friday told Crosscut that the process of disqualifying ballots has not begun yet.

Meanwhile, Jenny Durkan is still decisively in the lead, but slipped below 30 percent of votes after Friday's ballot drop. Durkan had been pulling above 30 percent since election night, but was down to 28.7 percent Friday evening.

Durkan released a statement is support of Oliver's ballot-chaser recruitment.

"Our city should be united in efforts to ensure all voices are heard and all votes are counted. There is no more fundamental right in democracy than the right to vote. And there is no question that marginalized communities face the greatest barriers in voting — including a history of institutional, race based efforts to suppress or deny the right to vote. In 2004, I helped wage an historic, statewide fight to help chase ballots, fix signature problems, and ensure all votes were counted. The efforts changed the outcome of a governor’s race. Out of approximately 2.9 million votes cast, the race finally was decided by a difference of 139 votes. This is why our campaign was contacting voters last week to let them know their ballots were not being counted, and why I strongly support the efforts of the Oliver campaign."

Moon in a statement released Friday said that she was not ready to claim second-place victory just yet.

"Oliver's campaign has mobilized and inspired thousands of people. Rushing forward to claim a decisive outcome while some ballots are in limbo would only create distrust. As an engineer, I know that the structure of a coalition is more important than the facade. I know it’s going to take all of us working together to ensure our city’s future is not sold to the highest bidder. We must work together to build a strong progressive coalition because so much is at stake," she said.

Former state representative Jessyn Farrell conceded on Thursday. She was in fourth place behind Oliver, and remained in that spot Friday.

Image via Patch.com/Neal McNamara