SF Daily Brief for November 4, 2026

Welcome to SF Daily Brief for Wednesday, November 4, 2026. San Francisco is waking up after election night, with early returns deciding some races and leaving others open. Across these races, the results include early returns, the final ballot drop Tuesday night and the Department of Elections' 8:45 p.m. report. We begin with housing.

Proposition C, which would send more money to affordable housing through the city's Housing Trust Fund, faced no major opposition and was set to pass in early returns. The two housing measures took different paths. The "social housing" measure, Proposition I, drew nearly $3 million in spending against it from real-estate interests and was unlikely to succeed. The housing measures were not the only items on the ballot.

Voters also weighed in on the structure of city government. Early returns showed Propositions D, E and F each headed for approval. The three measures, backed by Mayor Daniel Lurie and a majority of the Board of Supervisors, would raise the signature threshold for citizen ballot measures, give the mayor more control over city departments and change how the city awards contracts. In District 4, Supervisor Alan Wong won a full four-year term, defeating Jeremy Greco and Albert Chow.

Wong had 76% of the vote in the second round of ranked-choice voting in the Department of Elections' 8:45 p.m. report. Away from the ballot, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a UC Berkeley student at San Francisco International Airport on Friday. Paula Albornoz Hernandez, 23, was seeking asylum from Colombia, her lawyer Nikolas De Bremaeker said. She was later moved to a detention facility in California City.

De Bremaeker said he filed a habeas petition, a court challenge, arguing the arrest was unlawful. Before Election Day, voters crowded the early voting center at San Francisco City Hall. Workers said Monday was busier than previous days. The city had 535,735 registered voters as of Nov.

1, and 137,209 of the 537,301 mail ballots sent out had been returned. On the Great Highway, Proposition G failed. For the third time, San Francisco voters rejected an effort to bring cars back to the coastal road. It will stay closed to traffic and remain Sunset Dunes park.

The charter measures were part of a wider night for Mayor Daniel Lurie. Nearly all of his ballot measures and preferred candidates were winning in Tuesday's returns, after a similar sweep in June. Voters were also returning three incumbent supervisors aligned with him. In the congressional race, Scott Wiener took a commanding lead over Connie Chan.

Wiener led by 10 points as of the final ballot drop Tuesday night in the race for California's 11th Congressional District seat. No outlet had declared a winner. Along the waterfront, the city's plan to redevelop Embarcadero Plaza and Sue Bierman Park could remove the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Monument. The artwork honors Bay Area volunteers who fought fascists in the Spanish Civil War and has stood on the site since 2008.

The Arts Commission approved the plaza plans on Monday on the condition that it meet again to discuss the monument, after Megan Bierman, daughter of former Supervisor Sue Bierman, objected. Transit funding also performed well. San Francisco's Proposition H and the regional Measure RTM were winning by wider margins than expected in early returns. BART and Muni had said they would cut service without the funding.

In District 10, Theo Ellington overwhelmingly won the race for Bayview-Hunters Point supervisor. He declared a decisive victory over nine opponents in the race to succeed Supervisor Shamann Walton. In District 8, Gary McCoy declared victory in the Castro supervisor race. He had led since Manny Yekutiel dropped out of the contest over sexual assault allegations.

For the school board, Phil Kim won reelection to the San Francisco school board. Two seats remained undecided. Candidates backed by the group GrowSF were likely to win the other races. That is today's brief.

Thank you for listening. For the full written brief, go to sfdailybrief.com.