Election update: Fresno County finishes vote counting; Cox-Valadao race still close
Fresno County has completed counting all of its ballots on hand, according to elections officials, and the congressional race between Rep. T.J. Cox and David Valadao remains neck and neck.
The California Secretary of State’s Office calls the race a “close contest” more than two weeks after election day. In the state’s latest report, Valadao held a 1,796-vote lead Wednesday out of 162,866 votes counted. The lead is less than half the difference Valadao held a week ago.
Cox, D-Fresno, closed the district-wide lead by a handful of votes after the Fresno tally, but the district also includes parts of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, where more ballots remain. The exact amount left to count remained unclear on Wednesday.
All that remained to be counted in Fresno County were an unspecified number of ballots postmarked before Nov. 3 and others that needed a correction related to a voter’s signature, the Fresno County Registrar of Voters said in its Wednesday update.
Fresno County Registrar of Voters Brandi Orth said she expects her office to be ready to to finalize the count on Nov. 25. The state has until Dec. 11 to certify results.
Cox’s strongest showing was in Kern County, where the district covers mostly just Bakersfield. He led there by more than 10,000 votes through Tuesday.
But, Valadao had his own 10,000-vote lead in Kings County, the home of the Hanford Republican.
Just 21 votes made the difference in Tulare County, where Cox led.
The first time Cox and Valadao competed for the House seat in 2018 was also a nailbiter. Cox was looking to unseat Valadao at the time, and Associated Press called the race the night of the election for Valadao.
Weeks later, Cox’s numbers kept climbing and AP eventually retracted the first call and then called the race for Cox on Nov. 28, 2018. Final numbers showed Cox won by 862 votes out of 113,616 total.
Fresno County presidential pick
The latest Fresno County results show President-Elect Joe Biden receiving 53% of the vote and President Donald Trump getting 45%.
All five Fresno County school bond votes (Clovis, Central, Sanger, Washington Unified and Riverdale) appeared set to reach the 55% approval required for passage.
In close local races:
Fresno County Board of Education District 2 — Bryan Burton held a 1,192-vote lead over Blake Zante out of 72,498 counted.
Central Unified No. 3 — Phillip Cervantes had 2,271 votes, Corbin Gunstream 2,214.
Fowler City Council — With three seats for six candidates, Juan Mejia (1,297) and Karnig Ronald Kazarian (1,290) appear certain, but Daniel Parra (1,154) and Leonard Hammer (1,119) were close.
