The latest ranked-choice results on Wednesday morning in Oakland's mayor's race show City Councilmember Loren Taylor widening his lead with 53 percent of the vote, ahead of City Councilmember Sheng Thao's 47 percent.
By late Tuesday, Taylor had garnered the most first-choice votes, with 34 percent of the vote, among a 10-candidate field in the Nov. 8 race. Thao followed with 29 percent and De La Fuente with 13 percent.
In ranked-choice voting the candidate with a majority of the votes wins. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The second choice of voters whose candidate was eliminated will get an additional vote until one candidate gets a majority.
By the ninth round of elimination, Taylor had 53 percent, but results aren't final until all votes have been counted.
Taylor, hoping to replace termed-out Mayor Libby Schaaf, has been a supporter of the Oakland Police Department while advocating for other changes to public safety.
"Bottom line is Oaklanders are frustrated," Taylor said Tuesday night. "They have heard the same thing. They have heard ideas that seem to be good, but we haven’t delivered. I'm about making sure that we move from ideas to realizing the value, the potential of those ideas."
Thao said in an interview ahead of Election Day that the most pressing challenge facing Oakland is the failure of the mayor and City Council to work together to solve the city's problem.
"We have to come together as a community and take care of each other," she said Tuesday night. "Leaders in city hall should roll up their sleeves and be part of community and have those conversations so that we can solve the crisis that we have."
On Wednesday, Thao issued the following statement: "We are so proud of the campaign we have run, and want to thank all of our supporters and volunteers for their dedication to our great city. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has so far only counted 37,000 votes and there are 70,000 ballots that remain to be counted. We remain optimistic about the final outcome. Every vote deserves to be counted."
De La Fuente did not reply to an email seeking his opinion on the challenges facing Oakland or return a call seeking an interview.
