Two candidates continue to swap between second and third place nearly a week after polls closed in the special election for San Jose City Council District 3 — with ballots still being processed and a potential recount looming.
As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Gabby Chavez-Lopez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, still holds a solid 30% of the vote. Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos is still in second place, extending his position by five votes or 22.18% and Matthew Quevedo, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, is trailing in third at 22.13%. With one candidate unlikely to get more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will head to a June 24 runoff election.
If the razor-thin margins hold, it will trigger an automatic recount under county election rules. County election laws require an automatic recount in races where the margin of victory is less than 25 total votes. The count is still ongoing with updated results expected by 5 p.m. Thursday.
The first round of election night results April 8 initially put Quevedo ahead of Tordillos. But updated results the next day flipped Tordillos ahead of Quevedo by just one vote — signaling a possible blow to Mayor Matt Mahan, who has thrown his support behind his deputy chief of staff. By Friday, Quevedo was back in second place by one vote.
The candidates swapped places again Monday, with Tordillos coming back up by one vote.
Tordillos’ campaign spokesperson Kurt Frewing declined to comment on the likelihood of a recount and deferred to a prior statement about the razor-thin margins.
“We must count every vote, and there are still more to count. We’ve crushed the special interests and pundits’ expectations, and we look forward to this process playing out,” Frewing told San Jose Spotlight.
Quevedo also declined to comment on the likelihood of a recount.
“Again, we thank the staff working so hard for an accurate and final count as well as every voter who showed their support for our ‘Cornerstones of Common Sense’ campaign,” Quevedo told San José Spotlight.
The thin margins have been fueling chatter in San Jose political circles about whether a recount will be triggered — or requested by a candidate.
Chavez-Lopez said she’s ecstatic about her wider lead.
“It sounds like a recount is going to happen,” Chavez-Lopez told San José Spotlight. “So we need to make sure every vote is counted and verified and it’s important as we’re rebuilding trust in the district. It just means more time connecting with residents. It’s been a truncated race already, so any additional time is important.”
There are 34 unprocessed ballots — 23 of them are being challenged for non-matching signatures, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. Ballots postmarked on Election Day were still coming in at the end of last week.
The election results could tip the city council’s scales of power, reshaping Mahan’s delicate six-vote majority and painting an early referendum on his controversial agenda to arrest homeless people and prioritize temporary shelter over permanent affordable housing. Total voter turnout so far is at just more than 19% — roughly 9,101 of the district’s 47,307 registered voters.
The moderate mayor has put his political machine’s resources behind Quevedo. Meanwhile, the mayor’s critics in Democratic Party circles have either backed Chavez-Lopez or Tordillos.
The special election is the result of a child sex abuse investigation into former District 3 Councilmember Omar Torres, which led to his arrest and resignation on Election Day last November. The scandal revealed Torres sent texts asking for sex with minors and admitted to molesting an underage relative in the 1990s. Torres pleaded “no contest” in court April 8.
The race has been replete with attack ads and dramatic mailers, either associating Quevedo with Elon Musk or accusing Chavez-Lopez of exploiting the housing crisis. And the campaign dollars are stacking up, with constituents and special interest groups putting thousands of dollars behind their chosen candidates.
Quevedo leads the pool of candidates in fundraising, with recent campaign finance filings showing more than $271,000 raised as of April 7. Tordillos has leaped ahead of Chavez-Lopez raising more than $163,000. Chavez-Lopez is in third in terms of fundraising, having raised nearly $152,000.
Funding from political action committees (PAC) has heated up significantly as the race heads to the finish line. Along with the thousands of dollars spent by candidates, seven PACs have spent more than $800,000 on the race either supporting or opposing Quevedo and Chavez-Lopez.
Story updated April 16 at 4:36 p.m. Original story published April 14 at 4:16 p.m.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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