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2011 San Francisco mayoral election

The 2011 San Francisco mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, to elect the mayor of San Francisco. The incumbent Ed Lee, appointed to fill the vacant mayoral seat, succeeded in his bid to become the first elected Asian-American mayor of a major American city.[1]

Background

Gavin Newsom, first elected in 2003 and reelected in 2007, was elected Lieutenant Governor of California in 2010 and sworn in on January 10, 2011.[2] Ed Lee was appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to finish the balance of Newsom's mayoral term and was sworn in on January 11, 2011. Lee initially pledged not to seek election, although an active movement arose to draft him into the race.[3][4] By the end of July observers were expecting that Lee would agree to run.[5] On August 8, 2011, Lee announced he was running for Mayor of San Francisco.[6]

The mayoral election was run using instant runoff voting, which was adopted by a referendum in 2002. This voting method was first in effect for the 2007 mayoral election, but no transfers of votes were needed in 2007 since incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom received a majority of the first round votes.[7]

Candidates

There were sixteen candidates running:[8]

Debates

Polling

Results

Results summary

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.

Municipal elections in California are officially non-partisan, though most candidates in San Francisco do receive funding and support from various political parties.

Vote counts by round

The following table shows how votes were counted[18] 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 that 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 that 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 that had not qualified as a write-in candidate.

References

  1. ^ John Coté and Heather Knight (November 8, 2011). "Ed Lee takes large early lead in mayor's race". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 8, 2011.
  2. ^ Coté, John; Rachel Gordon (January 11, 2011). "Gavin Newsom changes offices at last". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  3. ^ Coté, John (January 11, 2011). "Ed Lee becomes the city's first Chinese American mayor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  4. ^ McKinley, Jesse (June 30, 2011). "San Francisco Is Awash With Mayoral Candidates". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  5. ^ Knight, Heather (July 31, 2011). "What happens if Lee breaks his promise?". San Francisco Chronicle. p. C1.
  6. ^ Romney, Lee (August 8, 2011). "Ed Lee announces run for San Francisco mayor". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ Sabatini, Joshua (July 10, 2011). "SF mayoral election to change shape as ranked-choice voting debuts". San Francisco Examiner. Archived from the original on December 26, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  8. ^ "November 8, 2011 Qualified Candidate List" (PDF). San Francisco Department of Elections. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 12, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  9. ^ Cesarascarruns.org Archived 2011-05-23 at the Wayback Machine Candidate website
  10. ^ Devine, Anne-Marie (May 5, 2011). "Mayoral Candidate Forum on Service". University of San Francisco. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  11. ^ Fretwell, Luke (June 22, 2011). "Closing out SFOpen 2011". sf.govfresh.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  12. ^ "Mayoral Candidates' Forum". Eventbrite. July 11, 2011. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
  13. ^ Video of July 11 debate closing statements.
  14. ^ "9 S.F. mayoral candidates stress Jewish, Israel bona fides". jweekly.com. September 1, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  15. ^ "Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club Hosts San Francisco Mayoral Candidates Debate August 24". sanfranciscosentinel.com. San Francisco Sentinel. August 23, 2011. Archived from the original on September 13, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
  16. ^ "ABC7 News' recording of the League of Women Voters of San Francisco October 5 mayoral debate". abclocal.go.com. October 5, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2011.[dead link]
  17. ^ "League of Women Voters of San Francisco YouTube channel's video statements from all the mayoral candidates". lwvsf.org. League of Women Voters of San Francisco. September 14, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
  18. ^ a b "RCV Mayor".
  19. ^ "November 8, 2011 - Consolidated Municipal Election".

External links

Campaign websites