More Fresno and Valley election results trickle in. Here’s the latest on ballot counts

Fresno County election workers processed and counted almost 28,000 additional midterm election ballots Wednesday and Thursday, but plenty more remain to be counted as votes continue to come in through the mail.

Through Wednesday, the county’s elections office had received 162,574 ballots, including 12,822 that came through the U.S. Post Office on Wednesday. By Thursday evening, Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus estimated that about 41,000 ballots are yet to be processed, and that doesn’t count thousands more postmarked by Nov. 8 and expected to arrive via the U.S. Post Office before the deadline of 5 p.m. Nov. 15.

Thursday’s update from Fresno County was originally expected by 5 p.m. Thursday, but was pushed to about 7 p.m. because election workers were trying to process and tabulate as many votes as they can before the three-day Veterans Day holiday weekend, Kus told The Fresno Bee. The first post-election update was originally expected to be released by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday evening’s update showed that in the Fresno Unified School District, incumbent trustee Terry Slatic was losing in his re-election bid to represent Area 7, the Bullard High School area of northwest Fresno. Challenger Susan Wittrup, a retired school psychologist, extended her lead over Slatic since Tuesday night. Wittrup has 7,974 votes or 57.7% to 3,600 votes and 26.1% for Slatic. Two other candidates trailed: James Richard Barr with 1,635 votes, 11.8%, and Michael W. Haynes with 564 votes or 4.1%.

In the McLane High area of central Fresno, Fresno Unified incumbent Area 4 trustee Veva Islas had been leading by a mere 25 votes after Tuesday night over her closest challenger, retired teacher Karen A. Steed. In Thursday night’s update, Islas extended the margin to 141 votes, receiving 2,043 votes or 43.4% to Steed’s 1,902 votes, 40.4%. A third candidate, Michelle Denise Scire, had 722 votes or 15.3%.

Local ballot measures

Three major sales tax measures on the ballot in Fresno County continued to lag behind the margins they needed to pass. Measure E, a heavily financed proposal for a 0.2% tax to raise money for Fresno State facilities and academic programs, was being soundly defeated by more than 10,000 votes on Thursday, with 79,727 no votes, or 53.5%, to 69,335 yes votes, 46.5%. Measure E required a simple majority of 50% plus one vote to pass.

Fresno County Measure C, a proposed 30-year extension of an existing half-cent sales tax for road and transportation improvements, was also failing. More than 86,600 voters said yes to the measure, about 58%, compared to about 62,700 no votes, 42%. But the measure requires a two-thirds majority, or 66.67%, to pass.

In the city of Fresno, Measure M was also falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass. The measure, which would add a 0.125% sales tax in the city to raise money for veterans facilities and programs, received 42,827 yes votes, or 59.1%.

But in Clovis, Measure B was passing handily. The measure will increase the city’s transient occupancy tax on hotel rooms and lodging from the current 10% rate to 12%. Measure B required only a simple majority to pass, but gained yes votes from almost 70% of voters.

Clovis City Council

Of 10 candidates on the ballot for the Clovis City Council, three had clearly separated themselves from the rest of the field to win the three seats that were up for election. Two incumbents opted not to seek re-election this year, attracting the slew of would-be officeholders in addition to the one remaining incumbent, Drew Bessinger.

Bessinger led all candidates as of Thursday night with more than 13,000 votes, or 21.7%. Barring some dramatic shift in how voters come in from uncounted ballots, the other two open seats will go to Diane Pearce, who had 12,783 votes or 21.2%, and Matt Basgall with 12,020 votes or 19.9%.

None of the other seven candidates had more than 8% of the votes counted so far.

At the state level, the California Secretary of State provided its latest report of results shortly before 4:30 p.m. Thursday on district races such as Congress, state Assembly and state Senate. Those tallies didn’t offer much change in terms of races affecting the central San Joaquin Valley, including some nail-biters.

Too close to call

In the 27th Assembly District, Esmeralda Soria remains locked in a very close contest with opponent Mark Pazin in a district that includes portions of Fresno, Madera and Merced counties. Soria, a Fresno City Council member running as a Democrat, held a slim 219-vote advantage as of Thursday afternoon over Republican candidate Pazin, a former Merced County sheriff, with about 50,000 votes counted as of Thursday afternoon.

And in the North Valley, farmer and businessman John Duarte, R-Hughson, continued to hold a lead of less than one percentage point over longtime Assemblymember Adam Gray, D-Merced. Thursday afternoon’s returns showed Duarte with 36,095 votes, or 50.4%, to Gray’s 35,570 votes, or 49.6%. This race proved to be a hotly contested seat as Democrats sought to maintain a slight majority in the House of Representatives while Republicans sought to wrest control of the House.

Most, but not all, incumbents leading

Many of the Incumbent officeholders representing the Valley in the state Senate, Assembly and Congress were leading in their races in Thursday afternoon’s update.

Assembly Member Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, was safely ahead in his re-election bid in the 8th Assembly District. So was Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, in the 31st Assembly District; and Assemblymember Devon Mathis, R-Visalia, in the 33rd Assembly District.

But in the 16th Senate District, Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, trailed her Republican challenger David Shepard. Hurtado previously represented the 14th District, but relocated into the 16th District after election boundaries were redrawn last year. Shepard led as of Thursday afternoon by a count of 33,620 votes to Hurtado’s 30,263, a margin of 52.6% to 47.4%.

Other sitting senators had leads that appeared to be comfortable. In the 12th District, Republican Shannon Grove of Bakersfield led Democrat Susanne Gundy by a margin of 68.7% to 31.3%. Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, led Republican Amnon Shore in the 14th Senate District, 55.2% to 44.8%. And in the 4th District, an area formerly represented by Fresno Republican Andreas Borgeas, two Democrats were in a tight contest, with Marie Alvarado-Gil of Amador County receiving 51.7% of votes to Tim Robertson’s 48.3%. Robertson lives in Stanislaus County.

In the Valley’s other congressional races, Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, had a 60.8% to 39.2% lead over Democratic challenger Michael J. Barkley in the 5th Congressional District; and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, was handily beating Democrat Marisa Wood in the 20th Congressional District.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, has a history of close races. In the 22nd Congressional District, Valadao was leading longtime state Assembly Member Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, by a margin of 54% to 46%. That’s a larger percentage lead than he’s experienced over the past two election cycles in 2018, when he lost to Democrat TJ Cox of Fresno, and in 2020, when he defeated Cox to retake the seat.