With only a month before Election Day, San Francisco mayoral candidates have been ratcheting up the competition and trying to gain an edge in the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
Mark Farrell, a former interim mayor who’s running to replace London Breed as the city’s top elected official, wants his supporters to eschew naming her on the ballot.
“Mayor Breed has overseen the sharpest decline San Francisco has faced in modern history,” Farrell told The Standard. “We must stop putting the same people in charge who have failed.”
Under the city’s ranked-choice system, voters can list candidates in order of preference, instead of selecting a single contender. If there’s no clear winner in the first round, the second-choice votes are tallied and so on, until someone garners more than 50% of the vote through a list of up to 10 candidates.
This system is considered beneficial for middle-ground candidates, though it can sometimes lead to unexpected outcomes, with the candidate receiving the most first-choice votes losing.
Farrell is also asking voters to abandon mayoral candidate and Supervisor Aaron Peskin while trying to court supporters of another challenger, nonprofit founder and Levi’s heir Daniel Lurie.
Farrell’s gambit apparently contradicts the strategy of most moderate political groups, which asked voters to list Breed, Farrell, and Lurie.
“San Franciscans have three qualified candidates running for Mayor. You should vote for all three,” moderate group GrowSF’s voter guide stated on its website. Together SF Action, a moderate group and Farrell ally, also recommended a ranked-choice strategy for all three. (Michael Moritz, The Standard’s chairman, has given money to TogetherSF Action and a committee organized by Farrell in support of Proposition D, a ballot measure to cut city commissions.)
Farrell is also asking Lurie supporters to vote for him as their second choice, while allying with Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who consistently polls at fifth.
“I believe we are doing San Francisco an extreme disservice if we fail to communicate a clear ranked-choice strategy to our supporters and voters,” Farrell said. “That’s why I’m asking voters who are putting Daniel Lurie first choice to make me their second choice.”
Lurie, who’s surging in the latest polls, is considered to have many supporters from the same politically moderate and wealthy voter base as Farrell.
Despite Farrell’s efforts to seek support from Lurie’s supporters, some of the most vicious attacks are between the two candidates on social media and in TV ads. Even though he needs to pick up more second-choice votes from Lurie to win the race, Farrell said he doesn’t agree with his challenger’s tactics and has accused him of being naive and inexperienced.
Breed campaign spokesman Joe Arellano described Farrell’s latest strategy as a “ridiculous stunt” that suggests a campaign in chaos as his polling number plummets.
“Daniel Lurie’s nonstop attack ads have Mark Farrell running scared and trying anything to get them to stop,” Arellano said.
Lurie’s campaign declined to comment.
Peskin, the progressive candidate largely staying out of the moderates’ fight, called Farrell’s strategy “fundamentally anti-democratic” and encouraged his own supporters to use all their votes.
During the city’s last competitive mayoral race, in 2018, two progressive candidates — then-Supervisor Jane Kim and former state Sen. Mark Leno — formed an alliance against Breed. The strategy almost worked, as Kim’s votes were largely transferred to Leno, but Breed won in a razor-thin margin.
Now, in another tight race, ranked-choice voting strategy is likely to play a major role.