Fresno County poised for new sheriff as Salazar confirms plans to concede to Zanoni
With under 5,000 ballots left to process in Fresno’s June primary election, Mark Salazar said he plans to reach out to John Zanoni Thursday to concede in the Fresno County Sheriff race.
Zanoni’s lead against Salazar grew by about 1% to 59%, according to new vote tallies reported Wednesday by the Fresno County Elections Office. Zanoni so far received 70,603 votes to Salazar’s 48,507.
Zanoni currently works as assistant sheriff and is poised to fill the seat of his current boss, Sheriff Margaret Mims, who is set to retire. Salazar is a deputy chief for Fresno Police Department.
Last week, Zanoni said he didn’t want to declare victory until election results were certified, but he thanked the voters for their support and said he felt confident he’d be elected sheriff.
Zanoni could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Salazar said he planned to concede and congratulate Zanoni in person at a task force meeting, but Zanoni wasn’t in attendance.
“I’m humbled that 48,000 people voted for me,” he said. “I’m proud of my family, friends, and team members that put together a 90-day campaign against an established group. I think the race shed light on the issues they are facing.”
Election workers have 4,000 vote-by-mail and 200 provisional ballots left to process. They also will tally any ballots in which they receive a signature cure letter two days before certification.
The next vote total update will be Friday.
With the new vote tallies out Wednesday, Fresno race outcomes remained mostly unchanged, with candidate leads shrinking and growing ever so slightly.
A little more than one-quarter of Fresno County’s nearly half a million registered voters participated in this election. Just over 130,000 voters cast ballots in the primary.
“Voter turnout in gubernatorial primaries has been lower than other statewide elections for several decades in Fresno County and the state as a whole,” said James Kus, Fresno County’s Registrar of Voters. “While we would be very happy to see participation numbers higher than the historical trend, the large turnout on Election Day was a great sign of Fresno County voters getting involved and hopefully indicates good things for the November general election.”
Fresno area incumbents and front-runner candidates held their leads following Wednesday’s latest report from election officials.
In the open District 1 Fresno City Council seat, Annalisa Perea held her lead with nearly 59% of the votes. She will fill the seat left open by Councilmember Esmeralda Soria, who is termed out and moving on to the November election in her state assembly race.
At the Fresno City Council level, incumbents Miguel Arias, Luis Chavez, and Nelson Esparza all held their leads over challengers. Arias received 62% of the votes in the District 3 race; Chavez received 55.9% in District 5, and Esparza received 66% in District 7.