This report was been updated, based on data released at 5pm Nov. 5. Bookmark this page for updates.
One day after a Nov. 4 Special Election for Santa Clara County assessor, it appeared increasingly likely that frontrunner Neysa Fligor and Rishi Kumar will face off in a runoff election on Dec.30.
Fligor pulled away from the field in the assessor contest, but her 38% total fell far short of the 50% required to avoid a runoff.
At the end of the day Nov. 5, there remained an estimated 165,800 ballots – about 30% of the total vote – to be counted.
But in the latest vote count, two clear trends emerged: first, Fligor, the current assistant assessor, continued to pull away from the field, with her margin over Kumar growing to nearly 46,000, from 43,000 a day earlier; second, Kumar, a former Saratoga City Council member and former candidate for Congress, maintained his lead over Saratoga Mayor Van Zhao, growing it slightly to 11,663 votes. The fourth candidate, East Side Union High School District Trustee Bryan Do, fell nearly 2,000 voters further behind Zhao, with 53,375 votes.
Historically, such large margins at the 70% vote-count stage have proven to be difficult to overcome.
Officials could not estimate when vote counting would be completed. It may take up to 30 days for county elections officials to verify voter records and determine if ballots have been cast by eligible voters.
Kumar on election night celebrated his solid second-place position, to the point of optimistically beginning a runoff campaign, despite Zhao looking over his shoulder. ”We’re thrilled to have made the Dec. 30 runoff,” he said Nov. 4.
The winner of the special election will replace Santa Clara County’s longest-serving elected official, Larry Stone, who announced in late June that he would step down 18 months before his term was to expire in 2027.
Stone served in that position for more than 30 years, and previously was the mayor of Sunnyvale. Assistant Assessor Greg Monteverde, a 35-year assessor’s office employee, has served since July as interim assessor.
Fligor was endorsed by Stone. Other local elected officials who endorsed her included Reps. Sam Liccardo and Zoe Lofgren, former U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, state Sen. Josh Becker, state Assembly member Marc Berman, former state and county legislator Joe Simitian, Mountain View Mayor Ellen Kamei and Palo Alto Vice Mayor Vicki Veenker.
Another revelation from the Nov. 5 vote count: More than 55,000 of the ballots – 14.5% – returned thus far had no votes in the county assessor race, while including votes on Measure A and Proposition 50. That gap is likely to grow as the remaining ballots are counted.
