Published
5 years agoon
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Drew PhelpsUpdated results for the Fresno City Council elections, released Friday, provide a bit of clarity in the races.
While still preliminary, these new results show slight increases in the narrow margins held by Luis Chavez in District 5 and Brian Whelan in District 7. More importantly, the outcome for second place in the tightly-contested District 3 race shows some movement but remains too close to call.
In the District 3 race, frontrunner Miguel Arias picked up an additional 319 votes, slightly dropping his proportional total from 30.09% to 29.58%. However, Arias has been able to rest easy since election night as the clear-cut victor.
Chavez, who faces a more serious challenge than expected, modestly increased his proportional lead, jumping from 41.03% to 41.21%. He will face Hmong television anchor Paula Yang in November in a race that has a significant chance of unseating the incumbent. During the primary, Yang peppered the district with signs to increase her visibility.
Whelan saw a similar jump, from 38.56% to 38.92%, and will face Nelson Esparza who now trails Whelan by 48 votes.
According to a representative at the County of Fresno Elections office, there are still about 21,000 votes left to be counted county-wide – about 14,000 vote-by-mail and 7,000 provisional ballots.
It is uncertain how many of these votes fall within these particular city council districts. However, it is safe to say that, in the District 3 race, there remains plenty of room for movement.
GV Wire’s David Taub contributed to this report.
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