A special election was held formayor of the City and County of San Francisco on June 5, 2018, to fill the remainder of the term ofEd Lee, who had died in office on December 12, 2017. Upon Lee's death,London Breed,president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, became acting mayor of San Francisco, but a vote of six supervisors replaced Breed with SupervisorMark Farrell. The mayoral election was held concurrently with the statewide direct primary election. In San Francisco, the election for the eighth district member of the board of supervisors was also on the ballot.
Eight candidates qualified to appear on the ballot, and a ninth qualified as a write-in. The four major candidates were former SupervisorAngela Alioto, former acting mayorLondon Breed, supervisorJane Kim and former state senatorMark Leno.[1] All four main candidates identified asDemocrats, though the position is officially nonpartisan per theConstitution of California.[2][3] The election was won by Breed, with Leno conceding the election on June 13.[4] All local elections in California arenonpartisan.
On January 23, 2018, the board of supervisors selectedMark Farrell to serve as interim mayor until the special election could be held. CitingRon Conway's role as a benefactor to Breed, SupervisorsAaron Peskin andJane Kim, considered theprogressive members of the board, sought to deny Breed the benefits ofincumbency going into the election.[8][9]
As San Francisco elections useranked choice voting, Kim andMark Leno chose to align with each other, each endorsing the other as their preferred second choice.[10]
The following eight candidates qualified for the ballot by filing all nomination documents and paying the filing fee.[12] The deadline for a candidate to drop out of the race and remove himself or herself from the ballot was January 30, 2018.[13]
First-place votes counted on election night had Breed leading with 35.6 percent, Leno in second with 25.9 percent, and Kim with 22.8 percent. As candidates began to be eliminated, Leno took the lead the next day.[60] He maintained a small lead during the week.[61] On June 9, Breed took the lead over Leno.[62][63] On June 13, with only 8,000 ballots left to count,[64] Leno conceded defeat and congratulated Breed on her victory.[65]
The following table shows a summary of the instant runoff for the election. The table shows the round in which the candidate was defeated or elected the winner, the votes for the candidate in that round, and what share those votes were of all votes counting for any candidate in that round. There is also a bar graph showing those votes for each candidate and categorized as either first-round votes or votes that were transferred from another candidate.
The following table shows how votes were counted[66] in a series of rounds of instant runoffs. Each voter could mark which candidates were the voter's first, second, and third choice. Each voter had one vote, but could mark three choices for how that vote can be counted. In each round, the vote is counted for the most preferred candidate who has not yet been eliminated. Then one or more candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated. Votes that counted for an eliminated candidate are transferred to the voter's next most preferred candidate who has not yet been eliminated.
Continuing votes are votes that counted for a candidate in that round. Exhausted ballots represent votes that could not be transferred because a less preferred candidate was not marked on the ballot. Voters were allowed to mark only three choices because of voting system limitations. Over votes are votes that could not be counted for a candidate because more than one candidate was marked for a choice that was ready to be counted. Under votes are ballots were left blank or that only marked a choice for a write-in candidate who had not qualified as a write-in candidate.
^Swan, Rachel; Sernoffsky, Evan (December 12, 2017)."San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee dead at 65".San Francisco Chronicle.Archived from the original on December 12, 2017. RetrievedDecember 12, 2017.
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