Ranked-choice lifts Marjan Philhour to razor-thin District 1 lead

Four incumbent San Francisco supervisors appeared to have secured their spots on the Board of Supervisors during Tuesday night’s election while two new supervisors will also join the board.

In District 1, which includes the Richmond District, candidate Marjan Philhour is in the lead but Connie Chan is trailing by just 43 votes after ranked-choice voting, preliminary results showed.

Because San Francisco employs ranked-choice voting for all public office elections, in which voters mark their first, second and third choices, David Lee, Amanda Inocencio, Sherman D’Silva, Veronica Shinzato, and Andrew Majalya have been eliminated.

In District 3, Supervisor Aaron Peskin won more than 58 percent of the vote, beating out challenger Danny Sauter. District 3 covers neighborhoods like Chinatown, North Beach, Financial District and Nob Hill.

In District 5, Supervisor Dean Preston garnered over 55 percent of the vote, while former Supervisor Vallie Brown garnered over 44 percent of the vote, early numbers indicated. The district includes neighborhoods like Hayes Valley, Western Addition and Haight-Ashbury.

Preston won the seat last year, also in a close race with Brown. Brown was initially appointed by Mayor London Breed back in 2018 to complete the rest of Breed’s term as District 5 supervisor after Breed became mayor.

In District 7, made up of areas like West Portal and Stonestown, Myrna Melgar has taken the lead with over 53 percent of the vote with Joel Engardio in second place.

District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, whose district includes the Mission District and Bernal Heights, went unchallenged.

Finally, in District 11, which encompasses areas like Ingleside, Outer Mission and the Excelsior, incumbent Supervisor Ahsha Safai appears to have beat out former supervisor John Avalos.

According to preliminary numbers, Safai won more than 54 percent of the vote, while Avalos garnered just over 45 percent.

Avalos was first elected to the board back in 2008, where he served two consecutive terms.