Berkeley City Council Member Sophie Hahn maintained a healthy lead over her four opponents in the mayoral election Wednesday, according to preliminary results released by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
With more than 16,000 votes counted, Hahn was leading with 52 percent of the vote over Adena Ishii, who had 47 percent after four rounds of ranked-choice voting.
If the results hold, Hahn will replace departing Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who left office to run for a state Senate seat, which he appears to be winning handily.
Hahn thanked her supporters in an email statement Wednesday morning but cautioned there were a lot more votes to still be counted despite the "notoriously confusing" Registrar of Voters webpage that shows 100 percent of precincts reporting but doesn't mention that many votes are still outstanding.
Hahn said: "At this time, slightly less than one-third of expected votes in the Mayoral, Council, School Board and other local races have been counted. After ranked-choice tabulations, our campaign is showing close to 53 percent of the vote. We are very optimistic this margin will hold -- and possibly increase."
Ishii said she expects voter turnout in the race to hit about 60,000 so there's still a long way to go before the final results are in.
She added: "I'm cautiously optimistic. It's not over 'till it's over and we're keeping an eye on those ranked choice votes."
She thanked her campaign team and noted how proud she is of their work, especially over the last two months or so as she built up her name recognition via an energetic outreach strategy.
