The vote totals were updated at 9:22pm Dec. 30.
Assistant Assessor Neysa Fligor led former Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar by nearly 53,000 votes in unofficial returns reported at 9:22pm tonight.
The margin could prove insurmountable, likely exceeding the total number of votes that remain to be counted in a low-turnout race.
The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters reported Fligor with 108,556 votes – 65.7% – and Kumar with 56,617 votes – 34.3%.
As the top two vote-getters among four candidates in the Nov. 4 general election, Fligor and Kumar were the only names in the runoff election for assessor. Most county voters chose to pass on the chance to cast a vote for a post that hasn’t been up for grabs in three decades.
Fligor will fill the seat vacated by the June announcement by Assessor Larry Stone that he would retire after more than 30 years and leave before his term expired.
Fligor is a native Jamaican who earned a law degree from Georgetown University who had stressed her expertise and experience in the assessor’s office. She is a member of the Los Altos City Council and serves as the city’s vice mayor.
Kumar is an Indian-American engineer and self-described “tech dude” who campaigned on what he called a “Prop 13 approach,” pushing a ballot initiative to give all property owners age 60 and older a 100% property tax exemption. He ran three unsuccessful campaigns for Congress.
As of this evening’s latest report at 9:22pm, only 165,939 – 15.5% – of the county’s 1,071,024 registered voters had cast ballots for assessor, according to the Registrar of Voters. An undetermined number of ballots remained to be counted.
The anticipated low turnout in the darkness of the year’s final days heightened the anxiety and uncertainty of the final weeks of the abbreviated campaign.
Most voters cast ballots by mail, but thousands showed up at the 38 vote centers scattered across the county, or dropped their mail ballots in 109 ballot drop boxes. Polls closed at 8pm.
Because the mail ballots were tallied as they came in, the first results announced reflected those totals. Election workers begin counting the in-person ballots precinct by precinct as well as late arriving mail ballots tonight, with counting expected to continue in the New Year.
In the November vote, Fligor, the current assistant county assessor, led Kumar, a former Saratoga city council member, by more than 63,000 votes.
An election cycle that began more than five months ago in the bright sun of the summer solstice ended just before a new year dawned. Final results may not be certain until the first week of 2026 or later.
After Election Day, updated results will be posted at 5:00 p.m. daily. These subsequent updates will include all eligible Vote by Mail ballots received on Election Day as well as mail ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day and received by January 6, 2026. These updates will also include provisional ballots, conditional voter registrations, and signature cure ballots.
“This election was unique in many respects, not least of which was the challenge of conducting an election during the holiday season. This was the first time in our county's history that voting locations were open for voting on Christmas Day,” said Matt Moreles, Registrar of Voters.
“The timing of this election was also challenging because it followed so closely after the November statewide special election,” he said in a statement. “This left us with less than a week after certifying the final November results before we had to mail ballots to voters for the December runoff. Thankfully, our dedicated team was able to deliver another secure, accurate, and inclusive election for the county’s voters.”
The latest campaign finance reports filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission show that Fligor, who spent about $300,000 in the general election, raised about $40,000 for the runoff. As of Nov. 15, she reported $55,582 on hand, with $111,500 in campaign debt.
The politically powerful South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council’s Committee on Political Education spent $15,474 on behalf of Fligor since the November vote. The independent committee had spent $37,298 on her general election campaign, according to the FPPC.
In contrast, Kumar continued to spend modestly on his campaign, reporting $20,000 in contributions in November and December. He spent $12,872 in the general election race, had $17,147 on hand as of Nov. 15, and reported just $108 in campaign debt, according to the FPPC.
