In the tight race for Tacoma mayor, City Coucilwoman Marilyn Strickland‘s lead over architect Jim Merritt grew by 252 votes in the latest ballot counts reported Thursday evening.
Strickland’s advantage now stands at 369 votes — more than 1.5 percent of total ballots cast — with more than 23,500 votes counted. Thursday’s ballot drop included more than 3,400 new votes added to the total.
There are still likely thousands of votes remaining to be counted, based on recent city elections. In the last mayor’s race in 2005, more than 39,000 votes were counted.
The Pierce County Auditor’s Office expects to release the next batch of ballot counts tomorrow at 5 p.m.
Here’s where the race stood as of Thursday evening:
Tacoma Mayor |
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| NP – Jim Merritt |
11,558 |
49.09% |
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| NP – Marilyn Strickland |
11,927 |
50.66% |
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| Write-In |
59 |
0.25% |
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| Over Votes |
4 |
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| Under Votes |
1,199 |
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