Anthony Tordillos widened his slim lead over Matthew Quevedo over the weekend, as the county Registrar of Voters continued processing the last remaining ballots in the Special Election for San Jose City Council District 3.
The two men are vying for the chance to compete against frontrunner Gabby Chavez-Lopez in a second special vote on June 24.
Before that vote, county election officials today confirmed details of a likely mandatory machine recount next week of the more than 9,100 ballots before announcing an opponent for Chavez-Lopez.
“We will most likely conduct an automatic recount for April 8, Council District 3 Special Election,” Michael Borja, Associate Communications Officer for the Registrar of Voters, said in an email response this afternoon to an inquiry from San Jose Inside.
“We will publish a notice of the automatic recount on April 18 and will begin on April 24,” Borja wrote. “The process will likely take one day. Certification of the election will be on April 28.”
With an estimated 30 ballots still unprocessed, the margin between Tordillos and Quevedo will easily fall within the under-25-votes margin that triggers an automatic recount in Santa Clara County.
The latest vote count released at 4pm today showed Chavez-Lopez with 2,709 votes, Tordillos with 2,005 votes and Quevedo trailing with 2,000 votes.
Chavez-Lopez is executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, Tordillos is chair of the city Planning Commission and Quevedo is deputy chief of staff for Mayor Matt Mahan.
The automatic recount rule applies only to local contests whose jurisdictions are wholly contained within the county. Federal and state contests are excluded.
