With polls open, here’s how Fresno County voting is going. First results after 8 p.m.
Helen Cabe stepped through the sliding glass doors of the Woodward Park Regional Library promptly at 7 a.m. Tuesday and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, the polls are open.”
The parking lot was for the most part empty at that time, but she handled that dispatch with a flourish, hanging onto that last syllable. “That’s my education voice,” the retired Fresno Unified administrator said.
There was a slow and steady stream of voters in the first hour at the election day voting and drop-off location on Perrin Avenue in northeast Fresno, with most there to submit mail-in ballots though some also voted the old-school way with a ballot and in a booth.
But across Fresno County voters were off to a sluggish start – there was a low rate of return on mail-in ballots from registered voters and around 2,000 ballots cast early Tuesday after voting sites opened, said Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters James Kus.
The first update from mail-in ballots is to come this evening.
“We will provide results a little after 8 o’clock for those early vote by mail ballots that we’ve received, really through early (Monday) morning,” Kus said. “I think the number is going to be about 66,000. We’ve received more than 72,000 now, so there’s a little difference between those numbers.
“We’ll do that at 8 o’clock, then we’ll continue updating through the night, with at least two more updates for in-person voting and a final update will probably be sometime between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. and you’ll know it’s the final update when we post our anticipated remaining materials.
“We’re going to do a count of how many DVM (vote by mail) ballots we have left to count and how many CVR or provisional ballots we have and try to provide that estimate, and then we will process all of those Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and provide another update on Friday in the late afternoon.”
Across Fresno County, voter turnout typically has been low. Of the past 10 elections, only the general elections in 2020, 2016 and 2012 saw 60% or higher of registered voters in the county cast ballots, according to data from the office of the California secretary of state. In the 2021 gubernatorial recall election, 52.22% of registered voters in the county turned out. That percentage tied Los Angeles County, but was higher than only six of the 58 counties in the state including Tulare (51.08%), Kings (50.27%), Kern (48.68%) and Merced (47.72%).
In the most recent statewide primary in 2018, 30.95% of registered voters in the county cast ballots. That was well off the state average of 37.54% and the third lowest percentage in the state.
There was a 15% return of mail-in ballots from registered voters prior to Tuesday, which, Kus said, is a little low. But it’s a gubernatorial primary. It’s June rather than March or November. It’s also fairly early in the day.
“Fresno County for the last four state primaries has been dead on 30% and I have no reason to believe that Fresno County won’t do that again this time, other than to say it has been fairly slow at the polls and we have some catching up to do to get there,” Kus said. “History tells me folks come out in the morning and lunch and dinner. Recent history shows that it actually kind of peaks a little before dinner and then peters out. It builds steadily throughout the day to a peak around 5 o’clock, but we’ll see.”
State constitutional offices including governor, secretary of state and attorney general are on the primary ballot, as well as representatives to Congress and the U.S Senate, and for the state Assembly and Senate.
The two top vote-getters in each of the primary races will square off in the November general election, though Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) is unopposed on the ballot in the 8th District and Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) is uncontested in the 32nd District.