After Recount, Tordillos Advances to Runoff Election for San José Council Seat

San José Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos secured the second spot in a June 24 runoff election for the District 3 seat on the city council, election officials announced on Saturday.

Weeks of vote counting led to a recount — automatically triggered under Santa Clara County election rules — that confirmed Tordillos’ six-vote margin over third-place finisher Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff to San José Mayor Matt Mahan. Tordillos will now face nonprofit executive Gabby Chavez-Lopez, who was the leading vote-getter in a special election with significant implications for the balance of power at City Hall.

Tordillos said he is “very excited by the results.” And that he’s looking forward to the runoff election in June to “being able to get out there and talk to voters about our plan to address our housing affordability and homelessness crises and make real progress on quality of life issues like public safety.”

Tordillos ran without the outside financial support enjoyed by Chavez-Lopez and Quevedo. Led by labor unions, outside groups spent more than $450,000 to support Chavez-Lopez, while committees funded by business and real estate interests spent over $250,000 to back Quevedo.

This funding fueled an avalanche of mailers and ads, but fewer than 20% of registered voters in the district cast a ballot. The election was called after former Councilmember Omar Torres resigned in November and later pleaded no contest to three charges of child sex abuse.

Chavez-Lopez led the field of seven candidates in the April 8 election with 30% of the vote, but fell short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

In addition to her endorsement by the South Bay Labor Council, Chavez-Lopez shared an endorsement from the Santa Clara County Democratic Party with Tordillos.

“We are moving full steam ahead into the runoff, and I am more determined than ever to deliver the leadership our community deserves,” Chavez-Lopez said in a statement on Sunday.

The result represents a political setback for Mahan, who endorsed Quevedo as he looked to solidify a six-vote majority of support on the council. Unlike Quevedo, both Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos opposed a key plank of Mahan’s budget proposal: arresting unhoused people who refuse multiple offers of shelter.

Mahan now faces increased pressure to win approval for his agenda while the District 3 seat is held by interim Councilmember Carl Salas, a Mahan ally. The council will vote on Mahan’s final budget plan in early June, and the winner of the District 3 election will take office in July.

Thursday’s recount took place at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office in San José, where election workers manually reviewed more than 9,000 ballots from neighborhoods including downtown, Japantown, Northside and Guadalupe-Washington.

Santa Clara County election law requires a recount if the margin of victory between two candidates is less than 0.25% or 25 votes.

The registrar’s office will mail a ballot to every voter in the district in late May for the runoff election.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Anthony Tordillos opposed Mayor Matt Mahan’s plans to link elected officials’ pay raises to benchmarks such as reductions in homelessness and crime. A campaign spokesman said Tordillos is “generally supportive” of the idea.