With updated vote totals, most primary races in Fresno city, county are all but decided
With the latest updated results from Tuesday’s primary election in Fresno County, most of the local contests in the city of Fresno and Fresno County are all but determined.
The latest tally added about 24,000 votes to the overall turnout, but there are approximately 40,000 more ballots yet to be counted that have arrived in the mail and have postmarks of Election Day (March 5) or earlier.
Unless the remaining ballots provide a significant departure from the trending returns since Tuesday, likely nothing will change from the current unofficial results. Those include the contests for Fresno mayor and city council, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, and a trio of county ballot measures. See below for details.
There are still an unknown number of ballots postmarked by March 5 but yet to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to the Fresno County elections division.
The updated figures indicate that of about 146,000 vote-by-mail ballots had been received by the county, almost 106,000 have been counted through Thursday afternoon. That equates to a turnout of about 29% of the Fresno County’s 507,000 registered voters.
County Clerk / Registrar of Voters James Kus said the next update is expected before 5 p.m. March 12.
The fresh load of ballots created no substantial changes in the results of local races in Fresno County and the city of Fresno from those reported late on Election Night.
Fresno mayor: Incumbent Jerry Dyer continues to hold a commanding lead with almost 82% of votes cast, ahead of challengers James Barr, a high school teacher, at 12.9%, and stay-at-home mother Samantha Dussell at 5.5%.
Fresno City Council District 2: Incumbent Mike Karbassi leads with 73.9% in his re-election bid to represent northwest Fresno, ahead of challenger nonprofit executive Matthew Gillian at 26.1%.
Fresno City Council District 4: Incumbent Tyler Maxwell was unopposed in his bid for a second four-year term representing east-central Fresno.
Fresno City Council District 6: Since none of the four candidates received an outright majority of 50% plus one vote, the top two vote-getters in a race to replace term-limited incumbent Garry Bredefeld appear likely to head to a November runoff. Attorney Roger Bonakdar leads with 36.7% of the votes, followed by fund-raising consultant Nick Richardson at 27.1%. Out of about 12,000 votes counted so far, about 500 votes separate Richardson from the third-place candidate, businesswoman Molly Fagundes-Johnston, at 22.8%. Bank executive Raj Sodhi-Layne has 13.4%.
Fresno County Supervisor District 2: Challenger Bredefeld continues to lead incumbent Supervisor Steve Brandau in a race that is destined for a November runoff to determine who will represent the district that includes north Fresno. Bredefeld, termed out from the Fresno City Council, has 36.8%, while Brandau has 24.8%. Rounding out the field are county Assessor-Recorder Paul Dictos at 16.4%, business owner Bryce Herrera at 9.4%, and social worker Dion Bourdase at 7.2%.
Fresno County Supervisor District 3: Incumbent Supervisor Sal Quintero maintains a lead in his bid for re-election to represent southeast and southwest Fresno on the county board, but challenger Luis Chavez, currently a member of the Fresno City Council, has enough votes to make it to a November runoff. Quintero has 40.3% while Chave has 25.8%. Lagging in the race are Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias at 18.4% and teacher E.J. Hinojosa at 15.6%.
Fresno County Supervisor District 5: Incumbent Supervisor Nathan Magsig is winning in his bid for a new four-year term representing eastern Fresno County with 71.3%, ahead of challenger Jennifer Cruz, a nonprofit manager, at 28.7%.
Fresno County Measure A: The measure to keep Fresno County’s elections for sheriff and district attorney in non-presidential election years is passing with 55.9% of the votes counted so far, compared to 44.1% of voters who said no.
Fresno County Measure B: A proposal to reserve authority for the county Board of Supervisors to rename places within the county was being soundly rejected by voters, with 63.6% voting no against 36.4% voting yes. The measure was put on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors as an effort to assert local control over state and federal mandates to rename the foothill town of Squaw Valley to Yokuts Valley.
Fresno County Measure E: An attempt by backers of California State University, Fresno, to enact a countywide 0.25% sales tax to support facilities improvements at the university, was also losing. As of Thursday evening, 55.6% of voters were saying no to the measure, against 43.4% who voted yes. A similar measure for a 0.2% sales tax was defeated by voters in 2022.
