The first day's preliminary count after the August 1 primary was 88,950 ballots, 19.18% of the 463,660 ballots sent to registered voters. The leaders in this initial count were Jenny Durkan with 27,579 votes or 31.6% of the ballots counted so far, Cary Moon with 13,583 or 15.56%, and Nikkita Oliver with 12,126 or 13.9%. Jessyn Farrell had 10,308 votes (11.81%), Bob Hasegawa 7,526 (8.62%), and Mike McGinn 6,247 (7.16%). The remaining 15 candidates, and write-ins, totaled 9,899 votes, or 11.3%. "The Seattle Times", KUOW radio, and other local media predicted, after the initial count of about half what King County said was the expected turnout, that Seattle's next mayor would be a woman for the first time since Bertha Knight Landes was elected 91 years before, in 1926. They said Durkan appeared certain to have her name on the general election ballot, while Moon and Oliver, and perhaps Farrell, were in a toss-up to make it through the primary. "The Stranger" predicted that in the likely event of Moon or Oliver facing Durkan in the general, "Seattle's mayoral race will once again pit an establishment politician with deep Democratic ties against an outsider whose political influence grew from activism", whom Crosscut.com called "darlings of the left". Erica C. Barnett called the result a rejection of backward-looking "taking back" Seattle (Hasegawa) and "keeping Seattle" (McGinn). By August 8, local media said Durkan and Moon appeared certain to have their names on the general election ballot, with 186,784 ballots counted representing 40.28% of registered voters, and about 1,200 Seattle ballots left. Most of the remaining ballots were awaiting signature challenges. Oliver had begun a campaign of 'ballot chasing', encouraging supporters whose ballots had been challenged to contact the elections office to defend them. Durkan and Moon said they supported Oliver's efforts to make sure every vote is counted. Durkan, with 27.96% was still secure in her position, while Moon's lead over Oliver had decreased to 1,362, larger than the number of remaining ballots. After an election is certified, a recount is mandatory when candidates are separated by very slim margins. Moon did not announce she had won, and Oliver did not concede. Moon said she contacted Farrell, Hasegawa, McGinn, and Oliver to begin discussing working together.