They’re keeping their fingers crossed, but Clovis Unified School District officials are growing more optimistic that the $400 million Measure A, which was losing on election night, will eke out a victory.

School bond measures are required to have 55% approval, and as of Tuesday’s vote update by the Fresno County Elections Office, Measure A was narrowly passing with 56.82% support.

The biggest chunk of the bond measure — $180 million — would pay to complete the Clovis South High School project on the Terry Bradley Educational Center in the southeast portion of the district. Another $24 million is earmarked for renovating 67-year-old Nelson Elementary School.

About 18,500 Votes Left to Count

Out of the 50,000 or so Fresno County votes remaining to be counted, about 18,500 are in Clovis Unified, Denver Stairs, assistant superintendent for facility service, told trustees at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Even if only 45.7% of those remaining votes are yes, Measure A will pass, Stairs said.

But the trend as the count has progressed is a widening margin of yes to no votes, he said.

Now being tallied are votes that were cast as mail by ballot or ballot dropped off on election day at the polls.

The vote count is taking longer than usual because a larger number of ballots were vote-by-mail on Election Day than in previous elections, Stairs said he was told by county election officials.

Measure A Vote Updates

Stairs provided the following chronology for Measure A’s vote counts:

• Nov. 5 (election night), 8:07 p.m., 54,096 votes counted, overall 54.72% yes.
• Nov. 5, 9:50 p.m., 2,958 votes counted, 56.31% yes, overall 54.8% yes.
• Nov. 6, 12:30 a.m., 14,555 votes counted, 55.61% yes, overall 54.96% yes.
• Nov. 7, 3:28 p.m., 6,196 votes counted, 61.35% yes, overall 55.47% yes.
• Tuesday, 4:37 p.m., 6,559 votes counted, 63.26% yes, overall 56.82% yes.

The next update from the Fresno County Elections Office is scheduled for Friday by 5 p.m. Votes are not final until they are certified by the Registrar of Voters, and the deadline for certification is Dec. 5.

Measure A was one of six Fresno-area school and college bond measures on the November ballot. Bond measures for Fresno, Central, Sanger, and Sierra unified school districts appear to be on track to pass, and the Fresno, Central, and Sierra bond measures had big margins of yes votes.

Measure Q, the $698 million bond measure for State Center Community College District, is just short of the 55% yes margin as of updates this week in Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings counties.