Breed builds momentum in mayor’s race tally

It has been one week now since Election Day in San Francisco as the Department of Elections continues to count the few thousands of remaining ballots.

Board of Supervisors President London Breed leads former state Sen. Mark Leno by 1,861 votes — an increase of 260 votes since Monday’s update from the Department of Elections.

Breed now has a total of 111,446 votes (50.42 percent) versus Leno who has 109,585 votes (49.58 percent), according to latest figures from the Department of Elections on Tuesday afternoon.

Leno had led several days after the election receiving second place votes from Supervisor Jane Kim

But as the department continued process the vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at polling places and City Hall, Breed took a lead since last weekend.

John Arntz, director of the Department of Election said, staff are now counting the provisional ballots.

There were a total of 14,100 provisional ballots but only 12,576 of those ballots the department will count toward the election, said Arntz.

The department also needs to count 1,400 ballots for individuals who registered to vote in person at City Hall after the state deadline through Election Day.

There are 9,390 ballots remaining for processing, including 7,300 provisional ballots and 1,800 vote-by-mail ballots the department received last Thursday from the post office.

Leno plans to hold a press conference Thursday to discuss the election.

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.