What's at stake:
Updated vote totals failed to shed much new light on key area races that remain too close to call.
Incumbent Brandon Vang extended his slim majority victory-margin over second-place challenger Danielle Parra in the race for Fresno City Council District 5 after the latest round of vote totals were released Thursday afternoon.
If Vang remains above 50%, he will avoid a runoff election in the fall for the council seat that he has held since last year.
A spokesperson with Vang’s campaign, Pedro Ramirez, said they weren’t ready to declare victory yet pending a closer look at how many votes remain to be counted — a number the clerk estimates to be in the neighborhood of 70,000 as of Thursday afternoon, with the next vote tally expected June 9.
Parra’s camp was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
Thursday’s new vote count also moved the needle — slightly — in favor of Eimear O’Brien in her fight for second place in the county superintendent’s race. O’Brien’s small lead over Johnny Alvarado grew from 1,500 votes to about 2,224 votes. O’Brien now carries about 29.65% to Alvarado’s 27.38%.
Alvarado could not immediatley be reached for comment Thursday.
O’Brien told Fresnoland on Thursday that she is still hopeful and plans to advance to the November primary once all of the June ballots are counted.
“I remain optimistic that the voters will have enough confidence in me that I will receive the votes ultimately on Tuesday to move forward to November.”
Whichever candidate finishes in second place will take on incumbent Superintendent Michele Cantwell-Copher, who sailed to an election night victory over both challengers. As of Thursday, she held 42.62% of the vote.
Fresno County elections officials have counted 112,407 votes as of 2:32 pm on Thursday, June 4.
Elections officials counted about 11,000 ballots since the last update on election night. Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus told Fresnoland that his office still has another approximately 71,000 ballots to count.
Thursday’s results otherwise did little to change the emerging picture of the November mid-term election.
While Vang and Parra wait for additional vote totals, the other three City Council races on the November ballot are already set.
- In District 1, Rob Fuentes takes on Naindeep Singh
- In District 3, Joaquin Arambula faces Keshia Thomas
- In District 7, Nav Gurm is in a race against Ariana Martinez Lott
In the County Board of Supervisors races, District 4 Supervisor-elect Margaret Mims remains almost 15 points above the 50% threshold, cruising to an easy election night win.
Margins in the District 1 supervisors race remained largely unchanged as Mike Karbassi held his lead, 35.28%, to Maria Pacheco’s 26.58%, with the two candidates headed for the November ballot.
The Fresno-area state assembly race for District 31 also remained unchanged Thursday, as Democrat Annalisa Perea gears up for a fall fight against Republican Jim Polsgrove.
Fresno County’s Brian Pacheco, a Democrat, will face former Merced Mayor Mike Murphy in November for the District 27 assembly seat.
