California state Sen. Aisha Wahab of Hayward advanced Tuesday in a special election to replace former U.S. Rep Eric Swalwell in the 14th Congressional District.
An outright winner requires collecting 50% of the vote, plus one. Complete but unofficial results showed Wahab with 45,380 votes, or 42.37%, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
A complete canvass of the election could take weeks.
If Wahab fails to reach a majority, she will face the next-highest vote-getter in a special Aug. 18 runoff.
Two contenders could be BART Board Director and former Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez, who collected 17,848 votes, or 16.66%, and Rakhi Israni Singh, with 14,160 votes, or 13.22% on Tuesday.
The winner of Tuesday’s election will serve until January, when the winner of a June 2 election takes the seat for a full term.
If there is no majority winner in the June 2 election, the two highest vote-getters will compete in a Nov. 3 runoff, according to interim Alameda County Registrar of Voters Cynthia Cornejo.
Swalwell, a front runner in the race for California governor, resigned his congressional seat in April amid accusations of sexual assault. He has denied all allegations against him.
In the end, if no candidate takes any of the elections with a simple majority, voters in the district will have been asked to cast ballots four times in a six-month stretch for one congressional seat.
Swalwell, D-Castro Valley, had represented the 14th District since 2013. The district is in Alameda County and includes the cities of Hayward, Pleasanton, Livermore, Union City, Castro Valley, and parts of Dublin and Fremont.