2018 San Francisco mayoral special election

The following eight candidates qualified for the ballot by filing all nomination documents and paying the filing fee.[12] The deadline for a candidate to drop out of the race and remove himself or herself from the ballot was January 30, 2018.[13]

• Angela Alioto,[12] anti-discrimination attorney,[13] former Supervisor; unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1991, 1995, and 2003[14]
• Michelle Bravo,[12] holistic health practitioner[15][16]
• London Breed, former Acting Mayor; Supervisor (5th district) and president of the board of supervisors[17]
• Richie Greenberg,[12] business consultant, Republican County Central Committee delegate[18]
• Jane Kim,[12] Supervisor (6th district), former president of the San Francisco Board of Education[19]
• Mark Leno,[12] former Supervisor, former State Assemblyman, former state senator[20]
• Amy Farah Weiss,[12] homelessness activist[18]
• Ellen Lee Zhou,[12] social worker[18]

• David Chiu, state assemblyman[21]
• Carmen Chu, city Assessor-Recorder[21][22]
• Mark Farrell, Supervisor (2nd district), later appointed interim mayor[23]
• Dennis Herrera, City Attorney (2002–present), former president of the city Police Commission[24][18]
• Daniel Lurie, philanthropist, CEO of Tipping Point Community[11]
• Scott Wiener, state senator[20]

The following table shows a summary of the instant runoff for the election. The table shows the round in which the candidate was defeated or elected the winner, the votes for the candidate in that round, and what share those votes were of all votes counting for any candidate in that round. There is also a bar graph showing those votes for each candidate and categorized as either first-round votes or votes that were transferred from another candidate.

The following table shows how votes were counted[64] in a series of rounds of instant runoffs. Each voter could mark which candidates were the voter's first, second, and third choice. Each voter had one vote, but could mark three choices for how that vote can be counted. In each round, the vote is counted for the most preferred candidate that has not yet been eliminated. Then one or more candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated. Votes that counted for an eliminated candidate are transferred to the voter's next most preferred candidate that has not yet been eliminated.

Continuing votes are votes that counted for a candidate in that round. Exhausted ballots represent votes that could not be transferred because a less preferred candidate was not marked on the ballot. Voters were allowed to mark only three choices because of voting system limitations. Over votes are votes that could not be counted for a candidate because more than one candidate was marked for a choice that was ready to be counted. Under votes are ballots were left blank or that only marked a choice for a write-in candidate that had not qualified as a write-in candidate.