Salt Lake City Council chairman falls behind in vote count, while Mendenhall keeps lead

“I Voted” stickers are pictured at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — The vote gap between Salt Lake City Council Chairman Charlie Luke and challenger Dan Dugan grew wider Thursday afternoon, a batch of newly released election results show, with Dugan extending his lead.

Luke, who has held his seat on the City Council for nearly eight years and served as chairman for the past year, had 4,295 votes — 49% — as of Thursday afternoon, while Dugan had 50% with 4,447 votes.

On election night, the pair had been separated by just five votes.

While the final canvass won’t be complete until Nov. 19, Thursday’s batch of results included a large chunk of the 9,744 votes in Salt Lake City that weren’t counted on election night Tuesday.

Mayoral candidate Erin Mendenhall kept her lead in Thursday afternoon’s vote update with 58% of the vote — 25,502 votes to opponent Luz Escamilla’s 18,342. Escamilla conceded the race to Mendenhall Wednesday.

Other Salt Lake City incumbents Ana Valdemoros and Andrew Johnston also kept their leads: Valdemoros has 84% of the vote against challenger Leo Rodgers, while Johnston holds 62% of the vote against challenger Moroni Benally.

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