by Antonio Foster

(Updated Nov 7th)

In a race that was closer than many anticipated, sitting Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell is expected to beat first time candidate Tammy Morales in Seattle’s District 2 election.

With yesterday’s election being the first in the city’s history to determine city council positions by geographic location, Harrell is poised to become the district’s first ever representative. As the race stands now, he has received 54.87% of the vote to Morales 44.93%.

“I’m very pleased to be in a position to be the first City Council member for District 2. There is so much work to do and it must be done with a sense of urgency,” Harrell told the Emerald over the phone.

Harrell presently leads Morales by a little under nine hundred votes.

District 2, also known as Seattle’s South District, currently has the lowest voter turnout of any of the nine city council districts, just 18.91 percent as of this morning.

In the two city council positions still voted on city wide, Tim Burgess is leading Jon Grant in the race for Position 8,  and former mayoral adviser Lorena Gonzalez has a substantial lead over neighborhood organizer Bill Bradburd for position 9.

In other races, Initiative 122, the “Honest Elections” measure appears well on its way to being approved by voters. The measure will provide vouchers to Seattle residents to contribute to the campaign of the local candidate of their choice.

Proposition 1, the “Let’s Move Levy”, also appears poised to pass city wide.

In King County, Larry Gossett, who ran unopposed, was re-elected to his County Council position. Gossett’s position represents the West Hill area.

Votes will continue to be counted until they are certified on November 24th.

Update:

As of  7:00pm  November 6th, Bruce Harrell’s lead against Tammy Morales had shrunk to 378 votes. Harrell  currently sits at 51.09% of the vote to Morales’ 48.77%.  Ballots will next be counted at 4:30pm on Monday, November 9th.