by Justin Carder

(This article originally appeared on the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog and has been reprinted with permission.)

For some, it was a vote against recalls and political shenanigans. For others, their “no” votes were pledges of continued belief in her willingness to fight and lead on behalf of the working class and tenants. The math has been worked out. Kshama Sawant will not be recalled and can continue her term — her third on the Seattle City Council — through 2023.

Thursday, King County Elections released the final count of ballots in the District 3 recall before the vote is certified and made official on Friday ending two weeks of tallying and ballot challenges since the December 7th election.

The last tally shows No ahead by 306 votes — good enough for 50.37% of the vote and the majority required to stave off the recall.

As of Thursday afternoon, 385 ballots remained challenged. Elections officials say, in all, 820 ballots were challenged in this election, and the office typically sees about half of those issues resolved. Just over 53% have been cured so far.  By Friday afternoon’s certification, a handful of additional ballots challenged over missing or non-matching signatures may also be added to the totals if any last minute cure forms were submitted. But those small updates will be inconsequential. Kshama Solidarity’s December 19th “Victory Party” at Chop Suey can go off as planned.

The Election Night first count of ballots in the recall of Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant revealed that supporters weren’t kidding when they said they would need “the biggest get out the vote campaign the city has ever seen” to keep the District 3 representative in office.

The first count of the District 3 recall ballots the night of Tuesday, Dec. 7, showed “yes” on the recall on top with 53% of the tallied vote, leading by just under 2,000 votes. But those votes and six percentage points may very well be an impossible goal — even with the district’s propensity for left-leaning late votes. The challenge? The first count included 32,000 ballots. King County Elections totals show nearly 35,000 ballots were received as of 6 p.m. meaning the Sawant camp will need to produce a massive showing for “no” votes as the few thousand remaining ballots are processed. If turnout truly hits 50% as predicted by officials, about 6,000 ballots are up for grabs — Sawant will need more than 67% of them to have voted “no.”