Philhour lead trimmed to 25 votes in ultra-close District 1 supervisor race

San Francisco District 1 supervisor candidate Marjan Philhour continues to hold a razor-thin lead over candidate Connie Chan, according to the latest preliminary vote count Thursday by the Department of Elections.

While Chan leads who placed her first on the ballot with 10,676 votes, but Philhour leads Chan by 25 votes after factoring in ranked choice voting. Currently, Pilhour has 13,616 and Chan has 13,591. Election officials said 90,000 ballots remain uncounted citywide.

Philhour is a former senior advisor to Mayor London Breed and Chan is a former legislative aide to Supervisor Aaron Peskin and has served in several city departments in various capacities, including at the Recreation and Parks Department.

While Philhour maintains a thin lead, her lead shrank from last night’s final update from from 43 to 25.

Preliminary results from the department show that votes from another candidate, David Lee, are going to Philhour instead of Chan. Lee is the third to last candidate eliminated with a total of 5,723 votes.

Of those votes, 2,523 went to Philhour and 2,260 went to Chan. Both Chan and Lee late in the election announced a strategy to either place one of the candidates as the first or second choice.

In other supervisorial district races, incumbent District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin has locked in a winning 58 percent of the vote in the district that includes Chinatown and North Beach.

Incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston continues to comfortably lead over former Supervisor Vallie Brown by winning 55 percent of the vote.

The moderate candidate in District 7, Joel Engardio, conceded the race on Thursday in an emailed message to supporters. Former President of the Planning Commission and candidate Myrna Melgar leads Engardio by 1,901 votes.

Current District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee endorsed Meglar as his replacement. The mayor had endorsed both Engardio and Melgar.

In an email to supporters Melgar declared victory in the race. She said:

“This is not my victory, it is our victory. Over the last months, you canvassed for countless hours, made phone calls, and donated to help me cross the finish line. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.”

Supervisor Ahsha Safai maintains his lead over former Supervisor John Avalos in the District 11 race. Safai leads Avalos by 2,066 votes.

The Department of Elections plans to issue an update on preliminary results at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.