What’s at stake?
The winner will take over the Fresno City Council District 5 seat vacated by Luis Chavez.
Brandon Vang held onto over 50% of the vote in the Fresno City Council District 5 special election with an updated tally from the Fresno County Clerk’s office Wednesday, but the race is still too close to call over a week after election night March 18.
The latest vote tally added just 47 votes to the count in the low-turnout race, 22 of which went to Vang, a Sanger Unified trustee. That bumped his percentage up only two hundredths of a percent from 50.14% to 50.16%. He’s collected 2,299 votes as of Wednesday.
Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, a Fresno Unified trustee and second-place candidate in this race, picked up 15 votes in this latest count, bumping her share of the vote a hundredth of a percent to 34.98%. She’s received 1,603 votes.
Third-place candidates Jose Leon Barraza and Paul W. Condon received 12.31% and 2.31% of the vote, respectively.
Vang needs 50% plus one to win the D5 seat outright. Below that, he’d face a runoff in July against Jonasson Rosas. Wednesday’s tally shows Vang just about 7 votes over the required threshold.
The only ballots left to be counted now are those that require a signature “cure.” That includes ballots that either a voter forgot to sign, or that had a signature that didn’t match what the Fresno County Clerk had on file.
There are about 130 of those ballots remaining, the clerk’s office estimated Wednesday. Voters have until April 2 to complete the signature cure process. The final vote tally is expected Friday, April 4, by 5 p.m., the same day the clerk will certify the election results.
Vang’s campaign manager Pedro Ramirez said he’s confident the majority of any remaining votes will go to Vang and keep him over the threshold, though he stopped short of declaring victory.
“We feel pretty good that Brandon’s going to be sworn in as the next councilmember April 10,” he said.
Jonasson Rosas said she’s waiting for every vote to be tallied before deciding what step her campaign will take next.
The winner of the D5 race will take over the Fresno City Council seat vacated by Luis Chavez, the husband of Jonasson Rosas.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated the wrong date on which the Fresno County Clerk’s Office will provide the next update on election results. That update will come April 4, not April 2.
