The Oakland Mayor’s race was still too close to call Thursday night.
Thursday night numbers showed that Loren Taylor was slowly moving ahead with 53.31% and Sheng Thao 46.69%, a difference of just over 2,700 votes as they try to calculate the numbers in this rank choice voting race for mayor.
The Alameda County Registrar of Voters said they estimate that there are 120,000 more votes remaining for the entire county. They also added they don’t break that down by race. That makes it even more difficult to predict who will win.
Because no one got a majority vote in this 10-person race, eight candidates were eliminated, which leaves the two front runners. Second choice votes, whose candidate was eliminated will get an additional vote, that will continue until one person gets a majority.
NBC Bay Area reached out to both candidates Thursday night. Thao did not respond, but Taylor released a statement and said in part, “I’m honored by the confidence that thousands of Oaklanders have shown in me with their votes, but there are many ballots yet to count and the outcome of this race remains unknown.”
The registrar said there will not be another ballot update until Monday evening. That may be how long Oakland residents will have to wait before they know who the next mayor will be.
