Local election briefs

Published online on Wednesday, Jun. 04, 2008

Westerlund watches race

Larry Westerlund, who had to step down temporarily from his Fresno City Council seat in the midst of a re-election campaign, was following the returns in his District 4 race Tuesday night -- from Fort Jackson, S.C., where he is preparing for a deployment to Iraq.

Westerlund stayed in touch with friends and family who gathered Tuesday night at the Old Spaghetti Factory on Shaw Avenue. They used Skype, an Internet-based telephone and video system, to see fuzzy images of one another.

"It's great to see everyone, but it's tough, too," Westerlund said in a short conversation with The Bee. "You want to share the experience with everybody."

Westerlund faced Susan Good, district director for state Sen. Dean Florez, in the race to represent the east-central Fresno district.

Westerlund, a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve, was deployed on active duty last month.

-- Brad Branan

Small fire forces evacuation at Visalia polling place

A small fire Tuesday afternoon briefly disrupted voting at one Tulare County polling location in Visalia.

The electricity at the Sons of Italy Hall in Visalia went out just before 3 p.m., after smoke and flames were seen coming from the building's main electrical panel.

Poll workers and voters evacuated the building immediately, said Al Guzman, a field inspector for the Tulare County Elections Department. Visalia firefighters assisted poll workers in taking the election equipment and tables outside.

Guzman said elections officials planned to have voters cast their ballots outside under a patio in front of the building until the polls closed at 8 p.m. Guzman said the county could bring in fans or lights if needed.

County officials said about 1,200 registered voters are in the precincts that are assigned to the polling place at the Sons of Italy Hall. But, he said, turnout was very light Tuesday.

-- Tim Bragg

Odd coincidence

Once a year, every Fresnan gets to pile discards in front of the house. Then city sanitation crews come around and haul away whatever the scavengers haven't piled into their vans and pickups.

On Tuesday, the piles were on Barton Avenue between Gettysburg and Shaw avenues in northeast Fresno.

You can guess what's coming.

The "Polling Place" sign for the Barton neighborhood precinct was affixed to an old wooden dresser standing in front of the home where voting was going on.

-- Bill McEwen