Loren Taylor Leads In Early Tally of Oakland Mayoral Election -- But It's Ranked Choice and Quite Close
Former City Councilmember Loren Taylor had a small early lead over Barbara Lee in the initial ranked-choice tally in Tuesday's special election for Oakland mayor, but this may not mean anything.
We all know how these ranked-choice tallies can go, and the next update isn't until Friday, but in the April 15 special election in Oakland, Taylor led former Congresswoman Barbara Lee 49% to 45% with other candidates getting less than 2% each in the first-round tally of early results. As Bay City News reports, these preliminary results were announced at 8:15 Tuesday night, based on 49,042 votes counted.
When the other eight candidates are are taken out of the tally and other ranked choices factored, Taylor's lead became smaller, with 51.2% versus Lee with 48.8%, as the Chronicle shows us. The spread between the two candidates after this first round of ranked-choice tabulation was just 1,118 votes.
Turnout after mail-in ballots are received and counted could prove higher than what was reported Tuesday night, which was just 19.6% of registered voters.
https://sfist.com/2025/04/16/humpday-headlines-loren-taylor-leads-in-early-tally-of-oakland-mayoral-election/