The drama continues to build in the San Jose District 3 City Council race, with the latest results showing another swing in who could enter into a runoff for the seat with frontrunner Gabby Chavez-Lopez.

Following Monday’s ballot drop, Google engineer and city planning commission chair Anthony Tordillos leaped into the second-place spot by one vote over Matthew Quevedo, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s deputy chief of staff, marking the second time he has overcome a deficit in the last week.

“We must count every vote and there is still more to count,” Tordillos’ spokesperson Kurt Frewing said. “We’ve crushed the special interests and pundits’ expectations and we look forward to this process playing out.”

Chavez-Lopez has led the seven-person pack to replace disgraced former Councilmember Omar Torres, who last week pleaded no contest to sexual abuse charges involving a minor after resigning his position on the dais in November.

The remaining spots in the race have remained virtually unchanged, with former District 3 challenger Irene Smith placing fourth with 16%, followed by Adam Duran, Tyrone Wade and Phil Dolan.

Smith has conceded that the District 3 seat has become a three-horse race between Chavez-Lopez, Tordillos and Quevedo.

“Even though there’s uncertainty around who will come in second in the D3 primary, it’s clear we won’t advance to the finals,” Smith wrote in a message to her supporters. “While that’s a disappointing result, our movement has substantially influenced the agenda and political discourse not just in D3, but in all of San Jose.”

But despite Chavez-Lopez’s strong performance over the crowded field, her 29.9% portion of the vote was not enough to give her an outright victory. Unless a candidate received more than 50% of the vote, election rules mandated that the top two candidates would advance to a June 24 runoff.

Tordillos and Quevedo have swapped second and third place multiple times since the April 8 election, when Quevedo held a 159-vote advantage.

As the results stand, Tordillos has received 2,000 votes, or 22.18%.

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters will continue to count mail-in ballots through Tuesday so long as they were postmarked by April 8. If the results remain this tight, it would trigger a recount as county policy dictates an automatic review for contests with a margin of victory less than .25% or where that margin is less than 25 total votes.

The final results are expected to be certified by April 28.

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While Chavez-Lopez does not know who her next challenger will be, she told The Mercury News last week that the final results would not have any bearing on her campaign, as she is focused on her platform and connecting with voters who supported other candidates in the first go-around.

“We’re full steam ahead going into the runoff,” Chavez-Lopez said Friday. “What we’ve been doing – and the message we’ve been sharing – is clearly resonating with voters, so we’re focused on continuing that momentum.”