Kshama Sawant pulls ahead, after being 8 points behind on Election Night

Updated at 8:12 p.m. on 11/8/2019.

Kshama Sawant has increased her lead in her race against Egan Orion Friday night after another ballot count was released by King County Elections.

Currently she is 3.62 points ahead of Orion with nearly 52 percent of the vote.

Original story:

On Election Night, the news was that Kshama Sawant, the Seattle socialist council member who refuses to pander, was eight points behind in District 3.

And that Andrew Lewis, in District 7, downtown and Queen Anne, was behind.

And that Referendum 88, which would reinstate affirmative action to Washington state, was behind.

But there was hope, the super left said! Only half the ballots had been counted.

Sure, said everyone else. Maybe.

Former Mayor Mike McGinn wrote by email that he believed Sawant would win. “She is down eight (points) tonight,” he said on Election Night. “She was down nine in 2013 and came back.”

Ben Anderstone of Progressive Strategies Northwest said same.

“It’s worth keeping in mind that in Seattle about two days after the election the ballots that get counted start becoming progressively more liberal,” he said.

[Read what Egan Orion said on Election Night about getting so much special interest money.]

They were right. Because here we are, Friday afternoon after the latest ballot drop, and Kshama Sawant is ahead.

And Andrew Lewis has widened his lead on former police chief Jim Pugel — 4.6 percent.

And affirmative action remains too close to call. The approve or yes vote was leading for moment Friday afternoon when vote-rich King County released results. But after more results came in from other counties, the reject or no vote retook the lead. The approve vote has only been leading in four counties.

King County says it will release another 50,000 ballots tonight — which means they’ll have counted 95 percent of all ballots.

All this got us wondering: Are Seattle socialist-types procrastinators?

Because Leon Trotsky was militant about being punctual.

In "Problems of Life," Trotsky wrote, "I had, with the strong support of Comrade Lenin, a regulation about punctual attendance at business meetings," he said. This regulation passed, but no one followed the rule.

"Unpunctuality is due to carelessness and lack of regard for time," he wrote, "their own and other people’s."

Kara McDermott, Jenna Montgomery and Derek Wang contributed reporting.