San Jose District 3 special election race expected to go to June runoff with latest results in

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Election results are still being tallied in a critical race in San Jose.

The District 3 City Council special election comes after the previous councilmember resigned in disgrace.

The latest unofficial results released Wednesday evening showed Gabby Chavez Lopez in the lead with 29.96% of the vote with 2,694 votes.

Anthony Tordillos is in second place with 22.18% or 1,995 votes.

Matthew Quevedo is in third place kept away from second place by just one vote. He has 22.17% of the vote or 1,994 votes.

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Featuring Downtown San Jose, San Jose State University and city hall, San Jose's District 3 is one of the most high-profile districts in the city.

On Tuesday night, polls closed in the special election to determine who of seven candidates will be the district's new councilmember.

The special election happened after previous District 3 city Councilmember Omar Torres resigned in November following child molestation charges.

He later pled no contest to those charges the same day of the special election.

Experts say the scandal and fallout may have led to District 3 voters to take an even closer look at the candidates on the ballot.

"I think they are definitely looking for someone who has a strong moral code and values and they'll want to see that demonstrated," said Dr. Melinda Jackson, an SJSU professor of political science.

The earliest results from the Tuesday special election showed nonprofit executive Gabby Chavez Lopez in the lead, a position she held into Wednesday after the Santa Clara County Registrar released another batch of results.

She and her team celebrated that early lead at a Tuesday night election watch party.

"It is too early to call anything but this lead is incredibly encouraging," Chavez Lopez said Tuesday.

To win the special election, a candidate has to win more than 50% of the vote.

If none of the seven candidates reached that percentage then the top two go to a June runoff race.

The Tuesday night results initially saw Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff for San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, in second place.

"We're glad with the results. We're going to keep watching, but we're feeling really good," he said.

But come Wednesday evening, Quevedo was in third place in the latest unofficial results released by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

Taking over second place by just one vote was Anthony Tordillos chair of the San Jose Planning Commission.

In a statement Wednesday he said in part: "Despite being outspent 5:1 by special interests... I'm glad our substantive message resonated with District 3 voters. We must make sure every vote is counted."

The election results could tip the city council's scales of power, reshaping Mayor Matt 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.

The center-right mayor has put his political machine's resources behind Quevedo, 37, who is Mahan's deputy chief of staff. Meanwhile, the mayor's critics in Democratic Party circles have either backed Chavez-Lopez, 37, the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley's executive director, or Tordillos, 33, chair of the San Jose Planning Commission.

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, deputy chief of staff for Mahan, continues to lead 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 now in third having raised nearly $152,000.

Political action committees (PACs) funding has heated up significantly as the race heads to the finish line. Along with the thousands of dollars spent by candidates, seven political action committees have spent more than $800,000 on the race either supporting or opposing Quevedo and Chavez-Lopez.

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters said it will be processing vote-by-mail ballots by April 15 if they were postmarked my election day.

It said a June runoff election could cost between $2,008,816 to $3,264,326.

Bay City News contributed to this report.