Late Tuesday night, Democrat David Alvarez pulled ahead of early favorite and fellow Democrat Nathan Fletcher as the final polling results were tallied. Though an estimate 34,500 votes are yet to be counted, Alvarez secured a comfortable lead and a spot on the ballot next year facing off against top vote-getter Republican Kevin Faulconer.

As the only Republican on the ballot, Faulconer lead the pack with 44 percent, followed by Alvarez’s 26 percent and Fletcher’s 24 percent.

Fletcher was projected as a favorite for the election in early polling but lost his slim lead to Alvarez around 11 p.m. as the majority of the districts reported their results.

As none of the candidates secured 50 percent of the vote, the special election will continue to another round of polling within the next 49 days, placing the final special election poll in early February at the latest.

Though they made it through the first round of the election, Faulconer and Alvarez will each face a considerable challenge in the next round, says Brian Adams, a political science professor at San Diego State.

“The problem for Faulconer is he’s a Republican in a predominately Democratic city,” Adams said.

Though Alvarez may have an advantage as a Democrat he will have the challenge of winning Fletcher’s more moderate supporters, says Adams.

The fall of Fletcher’s campaign from first to third seems to have been caused by the large amount of negative ads directed at his campaign, says Adams.

Fletcher was followed by Democrat and former city attorney Mike Aguirre who gained slightly more than 4 percent of the vote.

SDSU student Michael Kemmer came in eighth place with 518 votes.

The election is a result of the resignation of Bob Filner from his position as mayor in August following accusations of sexual harassment from multiple women.