Mirkarimi holds lead over Miyamoto in S.F. sheriff’s race

With a little more than 32,000 votes left to count, the ranked-choice votes on the afternoon of Nov. 9 show that Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi is likely to beat his opponents to become San Francisco’s new sheriff.

Mirkarimi, whose District 5 includes Japantown, has about 53 percent of the vote compared to 47 percent for sheriff’s Capt. Paul Miyamoto, as of Nov. 9.

Mirkarimi received about 38 percent of the first-place votes in the Nov. 8 election, compared to about 28 percent for former undersheriff Chris Cunnie and 27 percent for Miyamoto, according to complete unofficial election night results on Nov. 8.

San Francisco’s system allows voters to rank up to three candidates. If no one reaches a majority, candidates with the lowest first-place vote totals are eliminated and their second- and third-place votes are reassigned until someone gets to at least 50 percent.

The candidates are running to become San Francisco’s first new sheriff in 32 years, replacing outgoing Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who announced earlier this year that he was not running for re-election.

Cunnie and Miyamoto have touted their law enforcement experience in the race while Mirkarimi, who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2004, has the support of Hennessey, an outsider when he began overseeing the department.