Shoshana Walter/The Bay Citizen

Councilmember Jean Quan outside council chambers at Oakland's City Hall

The wait continues for Oakland’s next mayor. 

After promising that final results in the close race would be released Monday afternoon, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters changed course, announcing that the final tally would be delayed. 

The reason: not all the ballots are counted. Last Frdiay, the registrar angered some Oakland officials by tallying the ranked-choice votes before all the mail-in and provisional ballots (ballots cast by residents whose registration needs to be confirmed) had been counted.

After meetings with Oakland officials Monday, the registrar decided not to release more results until all the provisional ballots have been counted. That will occur this week, the registrar said.

For the first time, Oakland used a ranked-choice voting system that allowed voters to rank their top three choices for mayor. Under the weighted system if none of the candidates receives a majority, second- and third-place votes are counted until there is a winner.  A spokesman for the city attorney said that an agreement between the city, county and proponents of ranked-choice voting called for the registar to release an interim count and then a final count when all the results have been tabulated.

On Friday, with no candidate holding a majority, second-place votes put Jean Quan ahead of the heavily-favored Don Perata. Perata had been leading 35 to 24 percent on election night after first-place votes were counted.

Sara Cox of the City Clerk’s office called the delay an  “intelligent decision by the registrar.”

“They’re going to count all the ballots first and then run the algorithm, so that everyone can be absolutely confident this way,” she said.

With Quan leading Perata by less than 2,000 votes, the results could have continued shifting back and forth if the registrar continued to tally up second- and third-place votes without counting all the ballots. 

Quan called a 4:30 pm press conference Monday for what she had hoped would be a victory announcement. Instead, she announced that no results would be forthcoming. She said that registrar of voters told her that results could be out tomorrow or as late as Friday.

Registrar officials were not available for comment late Monday afternoon.