This report was been updated based on results posted at 2:57pm Nov. 10.

With just 7,000 of the approximately 470,000 votes cast in the Special Election for Santa Clara County Assessor, the final two runoff positions are set:  Assistant Assessor Neysa Fligor and former Saratoga council member Rishi Kumar will face off in a runoff election on Dec. 30.

As the ballot-counting in drew to a close on Monday, Fligor continued to widen her lead to more than 63,000 over Kumar.  The Dec. 30 vote is required because Fligor's 38% total fell far short of the 50% required to avoid a runoff.

Fligor 's margin on Nov. 4 had been just 43,000, when 69% of the votes were counted. Throughout the week of ballot counting, Kumar, a former candidate for Congress, had maintained his lead over former Saratoga Mayor Yan Zhao, growing it slightly to more than 13,000 votes in Monday's count.

As of 3pm Nov. 10, Fligor had 174,691 votes, Kumar had 111,341 votes, Zhao had 98,278  votes and East Side Union High School District Trustee Bryan Do had 78,227 votes.

County officials have up to 30 days  to verify voter records and determine if ballots have been cast by eligible voters.

Kumar on election night celebrated his solid second-place position, 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.

The continuing ballot count showed that nearly 84,000 of the counted ballots returned recorded no votes in the county assessor race, while including votes on Measure A and Proposition 50.

Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.