McGinn supporters took no chances Tuesday night, giving out prepaid cell phones to volunteers to secure last-minute votes.

August’s primary elections introduced two fresh faces into the mayoral race and the Seattle political scene: Mike McGinn, a local attorney and environmental activist, and Joe Mallahan, vice president of Operations Strategy at T-Mobile. In that primary, McGinn edged out Mallahan with 27.6 percent of the overall vote. Yesterday, Seattle voters cast their ballots to elect one of them as their next mayor.

Last night, members and supporters of the McGinn campaign met at The War Room club in Capitol Hill to wait for the results of the Seattle mayoral election. Armed with an unwavering belief that they would not only win, but also know the results tonight, McGinn and his supporters waited for the numbers to flash on their projection screen. At 8:15 p.m., the preliminary results came in: With 23.76 percent of the vote counted, McGinn had a slight lead of 50.03 percent to Mallahan’s 48.96 percent.

McGinn addressed the crowd soon after the first votes came in.

“I knew that elections were about people, and I knew that elections were about the future,” McGinn said. “We knew we wouldn’t have the money that other campaigns had … but I knew if we talked about what the future of Seattle could be, they would join in, and they would respond to a message about the future.”

McGinn, a graduate of the UW School of Law, has lived in Seattle since 1989 and has worked as a lawyer and environmental activist. He has served as president of the Greenwood Community Council, founded a nonprofit program called Great City, served as 2008 co-chair of Seattle Parks for All, and also participated in the Sierra Club.

Mallahan also went to graduate school at the UW, receiving a master’s degree from the Jackson School of International Studies. He has worked as a community organizer in Chicago, and since 2000 has served as the vice president of Operations Strategy at T-Mobile.

Mallahan spoke to The Daily on giving back to his alma mater as well as the support he’s received from it.

“The [UW] is such a hub and core of technological innovation. I’ll be a big advocate of Children’s Hospital, which is essentially the pediatric department of UW Medicine,” Mallahan said. “I’ve met with President Emmert and he gave me his support. I’d certainly be a strong servant of the University and the U-District.”

Mallahan, however, failed to respond to several inquiries from students prior to the election, most notably a call to answer questions from The Daily’s editorial board.

Although McGinn supporters’ excitement at the early lead was certainly understandable, given Mallahan’s general domination of the polls, at 8:15 p.m., the election was hardly over, with more than 75 percent of the vote left to count. Staffers set to work contacting late voters, frantically unpacking prepaid cell phones for volunteers, and organizing carpools for last-minute runs to Sea-Tac airport to get ballots postmarked before 11 p.m. One volunteer explained: “We are going to call everybody that we have IDed in the city as our supporter that we know has not voted yet.”

While his staffers scrambled to secure the late voters, McGinn took time to talk with The Daily.

“I think students, more than anyone, understand that the decisions we make now have really significant effects long into the future, and that we need to take the long view on all of the decisions we make now,” he said. “I hope they’ll recognize the most meaningful thing they can do is to get involved with their community.”

An update of the results is expected at 4:30 p.m. today.

Reach contributing writer Natalie Johnson at news@dailyuw.com