"Amid winter storms and holiday festivities, county voters are being asked to cast their ballot by Dec. 30 - raising concerns about low voter turnout deciding the region's next chief property taxer. Candidates Neysa Fligor and Rishi Kumar won the most votes during the Nov. 4 special election, but neither got enough to win outright. The result - on top of spending $13 million for the November race - will have officials shelling out another $13 million to conduct the runoff, according to official estimates."
""Ranked choice voting can save money for local governments and for candidates by eliminating the need for primary elections," reads a December report to the Santa Clara County Citizens' Advisory Commission on Elections. "As an example, (ranked choice voting) may have eliminated the cost of the Assessor runoff election scheduled for Dec. 2025." Ranked choice voting is a system where voters rank a candidate from first choice, second, third and so on."
Santa Clara County held a Nov. 4 special assessor election in which Neysa Fligor and Rishi Kumar led but neither achieved a majority, triggering a runoff scheduled for Dec. 30. The county spent about $13 million on the November election and expects to spend another $13 million for the runoff; the county received $17 million from the state to cover November costs. A county advisory commission noted that ranked-choice voting could eliminate separate runoff elections by producing a majority winner in one contest. Officials estimate initial implementation for countywide offices at about $4 million, while multi-county offices would complicate tallying and require state law changes.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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