With the people's candidate John Avalos trailing behind, interim Mayor Ed Lee came in first after last night's votes were counted--due in part to absentee ballots filed before election night--but failed to hit the sweet 50-percent mark, so the ranked-choice voting system will now decide the winner. Over the next two weeks, the Department of Elections will count voters' second and third place votes. The first candidate to score enough majority votes will be named the city's new mayor.

Lee's campaign was fraught with controversy. For starters, many see him as another cog in the Willie Brown/Rose Pak machine. (An accurate statement considering Lee's unofficial party at The Palace Hotel last night was littered with power players, plates of sushi and roast beef, OAKLAND-BASED supporter MC Hammer, and the aforementioned Pak guarding the door to the party while revelers paid her their respect.)

The 'Run, Ed, Run' campaign was a bogus grassroots propaganda effort sparked by Pak.

Also, the California's Secretary of State office sent monitors to San Francisco to oversee the election in case of any fraud.

With Avalos coming in second, some have hope that a progressive upset could be afoot. Not likely. According to SF Examiner:

It would be “pretty hard to imagine” any candidate overcoming Ed Lee’s lead after early vote counting in the mayoral race Tuesday night, according to Steven Hill, the political analyst who engineered San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system.

“It's reflecting what we've seen in the polls for quite some time, Ed Lee with a sizable lead,” Hill said.

Few voters turned out for this year's election. Commentary from SFist's election night coverage ranged from the apathetic to the angry.

NTSF stated the sad truth:

Depressing how few people evidently voted.

Belgand notes that neither Lee nor Gascon were voted into office, saying:

It's even a little bit crazier in this case because neither Lee or Gascon were actually voted into office, but appointed. It's one thing to just keep voting for the same guy again and again and gain, regardless of what he does through some sort of bizarre apathy, but to elect someone who never even ran in the first place? I really don't understand people.

And njudah decries San Francisco's alleged liberal populace, fuming:

san francisco's deference to authority and to Willie, the Chronicle and the 1% proves that liberals in SF need to SHUT THE FUCK UP.

At best you are a pest. At worst you are smelly assholes. Either way, you're inefective. Love how you 99% rocketed Avalos to the Mayorship.

Oh wait. You didn't.

So yeah. STFU and go find a new hobby. if you can't make it in SF or Oakland, do you REALLY have a chance in LA or NYC or Chicago or SOMEWHERE BIG?
No!

Keep on sucking on Ed Lee's taint! I bet you love it and it's better than accomplishing anything. Also, after election day he will get off on kicking your asses.

Fuck off, please.

Read SFist's election night coverage here.