Fresno County early voting on pace with recent primaries ahead of Election Day

Fresno County’s early vote was holding near the county’s recent primary pace, but the larger story was how many ballots still had to be pulled in during the final week. By Tuesday, the clerk had received 49,238 ballots, including 28,175 mailed in and 21,063 dropped at secure drop boxes, leaving roughly 480,000 of the county’s 529,007 registered voters still out of the count.

Registrar of Voters James Kus said the numbers pointed to a familiar finish line for Fresno County primaries. “Based on these numbers so far, I expect a final turnout similar to our primaries since 2016,” Kus said. That matters because primary elections here rarely draw November-level participation, yet they can settle local races outright when one candidate clears 50 percent and force others into November when no one does.

That dynamic gives the final week real leverage in some of the county’s closest races. The ballot includes Fresno City Council Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7, plus Fresno County Board of Supervisors Districts 1 and 4, along with contests for county superintendent of schools, assessor-recorder, auditor-controller/treasurer, county clerk and superior court judge seats. Fresno State political science professor Thomas Holyoke said the number of competitive races could help turnout, especially with the governor’s race likely to motivate Republican voters trying to keep a path open to November.

The county’s voting pool is also divided across major blocs that campaigns are still trying to mobilize: 194,703 registered Democrats, 173,582 Republicans and 112,120 voters with no party preference listed. Those numbers leave plenty of room for late-deciding voters to shift the outcome in a low-turnout primary, especially in races where just a few thousand ballots can change whether a candidate wins immediately or survives to the fall.

Voting options remained broad across the county. Fresno County listed 54 physical vote center locations, 68 ballot drop boxes, 222 precincts and about 500 election workers for the June 2 primary. Vote centers opened Saturday, May 23, and were set to operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, then from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Same-day voter registration was available through Election Day, and county officials warned voters not to rely on USPS mailboxes near the deadline because delivery timing could not be guaranteed.

The county’s Dominion Democracy Suite optical-scan paper ballot system, in use since 2019, will tabulate the final tally after a primary built around federal contests in six U.S. House districts, statewide offices and a Kingsburg measure that would renew a public-safety tax raising about $2.6 million a year if approved. In Fresno County, the finish often turns less on party labels than on which voters actually show up before the polls close.