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SALT LAKE CITY — City Councilwoman Erin Mendenhall leads state Sen. Luz Escamilla in the Salt Lake City mayoral race in preliminary results according to the latest numbers released by the Salt Lake County Clerk's office after 9:35 p.m. Tuesday night.
The preliminary results give Mendenhall a 58.60% to 41.40% advantage over Escamilla with 33,818 votes recorded, a lead of 5,820 votes.
In addressing her watch party Tuesday night, Mendenhall appeared confident but said the race is "not over yet."
The returns mirror public polls done in the weeks before the election. A UtahPolicy.com poll released in late October gave Mendenhall a 13-point lead among likely Salt Lake voters. Other polls showed Mendenhall ahead by smaller margins.
At her watch party Tuesday, Escamilla expressed optimism that uncounted ballots could narrow the margins. "It's not what we expected, clearly, and we were hoping for a smaller margin," she said. "We knew our opponent was going to come strong on these early ballots. We usually get our support at the end."
She compared the situation to August's primary, when she vaulted over Jim Dabakis for second place, and a spot in the general election, after more votes were counted later that week.
Mendenhall told her supporters that the "election results are looking lovely."
"But we will keep you tuned in," she said.
Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said there are still "a lot" of ballots to count that came in at the last minute.
"Everything went really well, as far as the processes," Swensen said. "There were no lines. People got to vote very easily today, and it went well."
"Obviously this isn't over yet but the numbers are really exciting," she says to cheers.
— Katie McKellar (@KatieMcKellar1) November 6, 2019
She thanks her family, supporters, calling her campaign team "the best campaign team in the world." #utpol#utleg
2019 Preliminary General Election Night Results have been posted. Please follow the link below to see the initial report. https://t.co/ZeXr8OwVaj#utpolpic.twitter.com/VKnQ9scTzC
— Salt Lake County Elections (@VoteSLCo) November 6, 2019
More results will be released on Thursday at 3 p.m.
Contributing: Matt Rascon and Ashley Moser, KSL TV
