With one week to go before a special election to determine California’s congressional maps — Proposition 50 — a candidate wanting to oversee Fresno County elections is criticizing the man he hopes to replace.

And the incumbent is firing back.

Mike Karbassi, the current Fresno city council president, said Tuesday at a news conference that James Kus is not an effective clerk/registrar of voters. Karbassi is challenging Kus in 2026.

“Change is absolutely needed in Fresno County when it comes to how elections are run. I’ve given you a slew of examples of how things have gotten worse over time and not better, and it’s unacceptable,” Karbassi said.

Kus attended Karbassi’s City Hall event, which ostensibly was about federal monitors checking on Prop. 50 voting and ballot counting in Fresno County. Kus said he was happy “to see one of our local politicians be excited about elections.”

He also said Karbassi lacked fundamental knowledge of how elections work.

“This kind of shows where Mr. Karbasi doesn’t understand the legal requirements in the election process,” Kus said.

Karbassi’s Cites Examples of Elections Mistakes

Examples cited by Karbassi include missteps in the 2024 election under Kus: incorrect ballots sent, votes that were double counted and almost altered the results of an irrigation board race, and a key left at a drop box.

“We continue to be the laughingstock of this nation when it comes to elections,” Karbassi said. He specified how long it took to count ballots in a particularly tight congressional race.

Karbassi said constituents told him they received multiple ballots.

“I’m asking folks to say no to zombie ballots,” Karbassi said, using his term for the extra ballots for the Nov. 4 Prop. 50 election.

Kus Responds

Kus said up to 8% of voters in Fresno County may receive multiple ballots.

“Every time a voter re-registers, every time they update their name, their address, their political party, we are required by law to send them a new ballot. That may not be the most efficient, but ensures that the voter has the correct ballot, the correct races to be voting on based on their current registration,” Kus said.

Regarding the key left at a drop box, Kus said “A one-in-10,000-occurrence happened and we adjusted right away and made those changes as necessary going forward.”

Kus said Karbassi “just doesn’t know the law” regarding his criticism of the time it takes to count ballots. Deadlines are set by the state, Kus said.

Both Candidates Welcome DOJ Monitors

Karbassi and Kus said they had no issues with DOJ monitors in Fresno County.

“Anyone that wants to monitor an election, whether it’s DOJ, whether it is the Attorney General, whether is the city of Fresno — as long as they don’t interfere with elections, they have every right to do that. I’ll put it this way, I’m not surprised they’ve chosen Fresno County,” Karbassi said.

“We are open and ready to welcome any observer, whether it be state, local or federal,” Kus said. He also said that federal observers watched the House of Representatives elections last year.

Karbassi implied the reason the DOJ would be monitoring was because of the mistakes made in 2024.

However, the complaint revolved around the 2022 deadline for curing ballots with mismatched signatures. GOP Chair Corrin Rankin detailed concerns about Fresno in an Oct. 20 letter to Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration’s assistant attorney general for Civil Rights.

“In Fresno County in 2022, the county closed the ballot cure deadline after telling some voters it would be open later, providing a moving target that sapped confidence in the fairness of the election,” Rankin wrote.

Karbassi brushed off the reasoning.

“There’s a buffet of issues. You choose,” he said.

Neither Karbassi nor Kus shared where they stood on Prop. 50.