Update: Friday, 9:27 p.m. -- The Mallahan-McGinn contest seems to be just about over, except for the concession. No more vote counts due this weekend. So tune in Monday. (Oh, and I fixed the headline on this post.)

Original post follows:

While we wait for the latest results from King County, consider this rather irritating bit of historical perspective.

In 2001, we didn't know the winner of the Seattle mayor's race until nine days after election day, when then-City Attorney Mark Sidran finally conceded to Greg Nickels.

Though that outcome had seemed likely for days, Sidran held out for more than a week after election day in the hopes that late absentee ballots would trend his way. It didn't happen. He finally gave in when Nickels widened his lead to 2,726 votes. (Nickels eventually won by 3,158 votes.)

Right now, Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan are separated by just 462 votes. We'll see if that gap widens when King County Elections releases another big vote count in less than an hour.