Precinct-level data shows how commanding Justin Bibb was in the Cleveland mayoral election

CLEVELAND — Mayor-elect Justin Bibb completely dominated Tuesday's mayoral election. The topline results alone showed that, with Bibb winning by 14,786 votes in a 62.86% to 37.14% rout of Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley. But historical and precinct-level data from Tuesday's unofficial results show just how commanding Bibb's victory was. Bibb's performanceThe city's East Side carried Bibb to victory, while the West Side, roughly, split. Bibb won 12 of Cleveland's 17 wards. Most of those victories were in overwhelming fashion. That included winning 9 of 10 East Side wards with 70% of the vote or more. His best showing on the East Side was in Ward 1 – one of the highest turnout areas in the city that includes Lee-Harvard, Union-Miles and Mount Pleasant – where Bibb won 87.1% of the vote, his best showing percentage-wise in the city. Despite many feeling that his base was concentrated on the West Side given his primary showing, which included massive victories in the Downtown, Ohio City and Detroit Shoreway neighborhoods, Bibb won only two West Side wards. Both Wards 3 and 15 – which include the aforementioned neighborhoods – voted for Bibb at 74.1% and 68.1%, but were on the lower end of Bibb's victories. Kelley performed relatively well on the West Side of the city, but not enough to overcome Bibb's East Side performance. Kelley won 5 of 7 West Side wards. His best showing was in Ward 13 — his Old Brooklyn-based council seat — where Kelley won 73.3% of the vote. Kelley narrowly won the total votes on the West Side at around 14,400 to Bibb's 13,100. However, Bibb cleaned up on the East Side, notching more than 23,000 votes to Kelley's almost 7,000. Bibb's 25.8 percentage-point margin is the sixth largest split in a mayoral election in the last 50 years. Mayors Frank Jackson and George Voinovich bested that split twice while Mayor Michael R. White did it once – the largest split over that time period. Precinct dataBibb won 229 of the city's 332 precincts — about 72%. Kelley won 91, while two tied. Bibb won every precinct in Wards 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 and all but one in Ward 8 — the other of which tied. Kelley won every precinct in Ward 13 and all but one in Ward 17 — which includes the Kamm's Corner and West Park neighborhoods. Bibb won 75 precincts by more than 100 votes, 178 precincts by 50 or more votes and 224 precincts by more than 10 votes. Bibb's best performing precinct was in Ward 4 and included part of Shaker Square and Shaker Boulevard, where he won by 301 votes. It was the highest turnout precinct in the city. Kelley won 22 precincts by more than 100 votes, 44 by more than 50 votes and 77 by 10 or more votes. Kelley's best performing precinct was the one including his home in Ward 13, which he won by 217 votes. Only 24 precincts were decided by fewer than 10 votes. TurnoutUnlike the primary when turnout was up, Bibb won with the fewest votes over the last 50 years at 36,168, according to the unofficial count. That was just barely behind the 36,196 Jackson won with in 2017. The 57,490 votes logged in the mayoral race was the lowest total since Jackson's 2013 victory over Ken Lanci. It is the lowest total in the last 50 years, as Cleveland continues to see a massive downward trend in voter turnout. Only 5 of Cleveland's 17 wards surpassed their 2017 vote total. Four of those were on the West Side, while one straddled the East and West sides in Slavic Village. Data editor Rich Exner contributed reporting and graphics. ©2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.