Jacobsen concedes in South Ward race
November 5th, 2009 by tristan baurickCity Council candidate Tim Jacobsen conceded on Thursday that his opponent Kirsten Hytopoulos has an insurmountable lead in their race for the South Ward seat.
Unofficial election results released Thursday evening showed Hytopoulos with a four percentage-point lead over Jacobsen’s 47.7 percent.
“I don’t see how I can close that kind of gap,” Jacobsen said. “I think she has won.”
Hytopoulos also believes the gap has widened enough that she will be declared the winner when the election is certified on Nov. 24.
“I’m excited and honored and humbled,” she said. “To have an opportunity to help lead this community is quite an honor.”
Hytopoulos’ lead has grown from 50.5 percent to 51.8 since Tuesday.
About 370 votes separated the two candidates in a race that has, so far, generated a total of 9,210 votes.
Elections officials said 663 Bainbridge ballots remained to be counted Thursday evening. An additional 181 ballots were in the “challenged” category, meaning the ballot envelopes were missing signatures or had other irregularities.
Jacobsen congratulated Hytopoulos on what he said was an election win.
“I sincerely wish her the best,” he said. “There’s a lot of challenges ahead of us, and it’ll take a lot of cooperation and collaboration to get this community to come together.”
The North Ward council race remained too close to call. Incumbent Debbie Vancil, with 48.25 percent, continued to trail challenger Bob Scales, who had 50.9 percent on Thursday.
Loading ...
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
November 6th, 2009 at 5:27 am
Congratulations Kirsten — you certainly have your job cut out for you. Good luck.