The candidate filing deadline was on the 9th, so we are now a little past a week into the primary election and under three months away from the August primary itself. Still very early but never too early for speculation, so πππ ππΈπππΆππΎππ ππΎππβ¨.
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“Democracy what?”
Democracy vouchers! Every Seattle voter gets four $25 vouchers per year which they can donate to participating candidates of their choice.
Because every voter receives them and it costs nothing to use them, the state of returned vouchers can be considered a sort of informal poll of voter feelings towards candidates. It’s not a perfect match, and the system can be gamed*, but it overall wasn’t wildly off in 2023.
Prism West hired a large number of subcontractors β some of whom earned an average of $1,000 a week. The contractors excelled at persuading residents to sign away their vouchers. [Andrew Grant] Houstonβs campaign collected $342,058.79, the most democracy dollars of any of the mayoral candidates. The campaign then paid Prism West $149,526.72 for its services. Oddly enough that bounty of taxpayer dollars failed to translate into many votes. Houston, who had 5,000 contributing donors, netted just 5,485 votes, 2.7 percent of the total vote for mayor and earning a woeful seventh-place finish.
At a glance
As of 05/15/2025, 16,337 out of ~500k voters (~3%) have donated 59,081 valid democracy vouchers out of ~2 million total (also ~3%), ignoring invalid ones that were filled out wrong. Of these 16k a large majority have donated all four of their vouchers, with 8,424 going all in on one candidate.
| Vouchers used | Percent | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6.00% | 981 |
| 2 | 6.29% | 1,027 |
| 3 | 3.39% | 554 |
| 4 | 84.32% | 13,775 |
Total: 16,337
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Mayor
As expected, Mayor Harrell is in the lead (but not with a majority), with Wilson in a respectable second place, Armstrong a somewhat less respectable third, and some underdogs in the sub 5% zone (Savage has withdrawn to run in SCC8 instead). There are three other candidates not listed here, but considering they’ve raised a grand total of $0 between them I’m expecting the contest for mayor to be Harrell vs. Wilson or Armstrong.
| Candidate | Percent | Vouchers |
|---|---|---|
| Bruce Harrell | 44.09% | 11,202 |
| Katie Wilson | 35.99% | 9,144 |
| Ry Armstrong | 10.78% | 2,740 |
| Joe Molloy | 4.12% | 1,047 |
| Rachael Savage (W) | 2.87% | 730 |
| Thaddeus Whelan | 2.15% | 546 |
Total: 25,409
(W) Withdrawn
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City Attorney
Davison’s position is looking quite precarious for an incumbent, guess “not NTK” is ineffective as a selling point without a NTK in the race. Considering all three other candidates are running to her left I don’t see her gaining significant votes from the two eliminated in the general, with O’Sullivan looking like the likely survivor.
| Candidate | Percent | Vouchers |
|---|---|---|
| Ann Davison | 35.04% | 5,699 |
| Rory O’Sullivan | 34.30% | 5,579 |
| Nathan Rouse | 23.77% | 3,866 |
| Erika Evans | 6.88% | 1,119 |
Total: 16,263
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SCC2
Time for yet another contest for the District 2 seat. So long Solomon, we hardly knew you. Unfortunately for former D2 councilmember Morales, her preferred candidate Fackler is trailing. Leading candidate Ducksworth is the only candidate in this post to have a majority of vouchers against actual opposition and also has the approval of councilmembers Solomon, Hollingsworth, and Strauss (not the most progressive slate) so progressives could be in for an uphill battle.
| Candidate | Percent | Vouchers |
|---|---|---|
| Adonis Ducksworth | 53.63% | 4,278 |
| Eddie Lin | 40.25% | 3,211 |
| Jamie Fackler | 5.43% | 433 |
| Jeanie Chunn | 0.69% | 55 |
Total: 7,977
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SCC8
Not much to say, really. With a massive fundraising lead and no serious challengers, Rinck looks set to ice the opposition and skate to reelection.
| Candidate | Percent | Vouchers |
|---|---|---|
| Alexis Mercedes Rinck | 99.77% | 6,017 |
| Rachael Savage | 0.18% | 11 |
| Cooper Hall | 0.05% | 3 |
Total: 6,031
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SCC9
Like in 2021, Sara Nelson is not participating in the voucher program so this one’s a mystery for now. Although, this might mean that would-be Nelson donors have instead sent their vouchers to other centrist candidates, boosting their voucher numbers.
| Candidate | Percent | Vouchers |
|---|---|---|
| Dionne Foster | 100.00% | 4,121 |
Total: 4,121
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