Updated: 12:54 a.m.

The top two finishers in Tuesday’s special primary election in California’s 36th district will advance to a July 12 runoff, but the results were still being compiled after midnight EDT.

With 16 candidates in the all-party field, none was expected to take more than 50 percent of the vote, which is necessary to win the seat outright and avoid the runoff. That includes the two Democratic frontrunners, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

The California secretary of state’s election website was reporting results from only seven of 261 precincts by 12:30 a.m. EDT.

With the early results near 1 a.m., Hahn held a slight lead of 24.4 percent to Bowen’s 21.2 percent.

The district is solidly Democratic, and should a Republican or lesser-known Democrat knock either Hahn or Bowen out of the runoff, it would clear a path to the seat for the surviving Democratic frontrunner.