The San Diego City Council unanimously voted to hold the special mayoral election on Tuesday, Nov. 19.
Mayor Bob Filner recently resigned amid sexual harassment allegations and his last day will be Friday. City Council President Todd Gloria will fulfill duties of the mayor and Council President Pro Tem Sherri Lightner will lead council meetings in place of Gloria until a new mayor is elected.
At least seven people have filed paperwork for candidacy, including former mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher. Other San Diego leaders, including Gloria and Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, have also considered running.
The estimated cost is roughly $6 million for a polls election, which was voted for instead of a mail election.
The mail election would cost half as much, but because the city hasn’t had one since 1981 there were too many unknowns to move forward with that option under the time constraints of the city charter, councilmembers said.
"It's a process we have to go through to ensure the people of San Diego have the opportunity to elect our new leader," Faulconer said.
The registrar’s office is now working to hire workers and sort out precinct polling locations.
"We're going to be it looks like recruiting approximately 2,500 poll workers and needing to solidify 600 polling places all within an 83 day time frame," said Michael Vu with the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.
There are roughly 500,000 registered voters in the City of San Diego, but it is unknown how many people will turn out to vote.
"The last time there was a special mayoral election was in 2005 and in that election there was approximately a 44 percent turnout," Vu said.
