Mike McGinn's Lead Grows, Recount Almost Certain

What we're headed for.

​UPDATE: McGinn's lead just doubled. More details after the jump.

The small lead enjoyed by mayoral candidate Mike McGinn got slightly less small yesterday. McGinn picked up 53 more votes than did opponent Joe Mallahan, giving him 515 more votes at the moment. However, with 138,000 ballots left to score, a number nearly equal to the amount already counted, the election is far from decided.

An extra 27,000-plus ballots were received by King County elections yesterday. And another 4,700 have been challenged because the signatures on them don't match the signatures on file. All of which means that we're probably headed for a recount. Now it's just a matter of figuring out which kind.

Anticipating this quagmire, King County Elections was Johnny on the spot with a reminder about what trips the recount wire:

Machine recounts -- A machine recount is required for an office or a state measure if the difference between the top two candidates or between approval and rejection of a measure is less than 2,000 AND also less than one half of one percent of the total votes cast for the candidates or the measure.

Manual recounts -- A manual recount is required for a race if the difference is less than 150 votes AND also less than one quarter of one percent. There is no provision in state law for a mandatory manual recount for state measures -- only a provision for a machine recount as stated above.

So there you have it. Depending on how things wrap up, this fight will either be decided by man or machine. Either way, the question of what group benefits most from the election of Seattle's next mayor is already clear: the lawyers win. They always do.

UPDATE: McGinn has picked up an extra 694 votes.

He now leads by a margin of 1,209. The last ballot drop is trending relatively heavy towards McGinn. We'll see if that trend continues when King County Elections announces the results of the next drop tonight.

UPDATE: The lead is now 2,384. It may not seem like much, but that means in the past two days McGinn has increased his lead nearly five times over.

King County Elections estimates there are almost 80,000 ballots left to be counted. We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: After another 48,000 ballots counted today, McGinn now leads by nearly 5,000 over Mallahan.

Mallahan has a press-conference scheduled for 5 PM. One free pint of Manny's to anyone who can figure out what that's going to be about.