Cary Moon’s lead over Nikkita Oliver grew again on Thursday.

In the race to face frontrunner Jenny Durkan in the general election, Moon now has a 16.72 percent share of the current vote totals from Tuesday’s election, about two points above Oliver. In total votes, that represents a 2,576 vote advantage for Moon, up from 1,978 after yesterday’s ballot drop. Both are trailing well behind Durkan, who has 30 percent of the vote as of Thursday.

Thursday was seen as an important ballot drop for Oliver. While the early vote counts have consisted of mail-in ballots that are considered to be typically from older homeowners, almost all of the 40,000 Seattle ballots counted today were from drop boxes, and represented a possible cache of last-minute voters who are assumed to be younger and more left-leaning, and perhaps more likely to vote for Oliver. Moon herself predicted a late surge from Oliver as same-day ballots were counted. “Nikkita’s numbers are going to rise. I will not be surprised if Nikkita overtakes me,” she said on election night.

While Oliver is picking up lots of late votes—and holding a steady distance from Moon in terms of vote percentage— overtaking Moon is seeming less and less likely, though no one is yet declaring victory or conceding defeat. A representative for the Oliver campaign said it would not be putting out a statement Thursday, and Moon celebrated the numbers in a written statement, but said “we’re not yet claiming victory.”

Moon did seem to be turning her sites to the general election, though, taking a swipe at her presumed opponent in the statement. “Only two of us will be on the ballot this fall, and I’m encouraged that close to 60 percent of Seattle’s primary election voters chose one of the five leading candidates who was not backed by big corporations and city hall insiders,” she said.

An estimated 40,000 more ballots from Seattle will be counted Friday.

In the City Council Position 8 race, Sara Nelson conceded Thursday night after a disappointing showing in which Jon Grant expanded his lead for second place over Nelson by 2,500 votes. As opposed to Oliver, there was little expectation that Nelson would see a late surge following election night, and Grant’s campaign has already declared victory. Grant will face Teresa Mosqueda in the general election; frontrunner Mosqueda now has 31.7 percent of the vote.

dperson@seattleweekly.com

This story has been updated to reflect that Nelson has conceded.