Brandon Vang (right) maintains his majority lead for a vacant Fresno City Council seat over runner-up Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas. (GV Wire Composite/Paul Marshall)
- Brandon Vang holds on to a majority lead in the latest election update.
- Vang is seven votes above 50%, a margin that would wrap up the election without a runoff.
- The next update is Wednesday, March 26.
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Brandon Vang’s lead slipped, but he is still above the 50% plus one vote margin to avoid a runoff in Fresno City Council District 5.
Vang stands at 50.14% as of Thursday afternoon. Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas is second with 34.97%, followed by Jose Leon Barraza (12.31%), Paul Condon (2.33%), and write-in Nickolas Wildstar (0.22%).
If Vang’s margin holds, a runoff election isn’t necessary. However, if his total falls below a majority, Vang — a Sanger Unified trustee — and Fresno Unified Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas will meet in a July 15 winner-take-all election.
With the vote update, Vang is seven votes above 50%.
At the end of counting on Election Day on Tuesday, Vang was 18 votes over the majority mark.
Thursday’s update saw 860 new votes counted. Vang took 48.6% of those votes, underperforming the first two updates on Tuesday. Jonasson Rosas scored 36.74% in the Thursday update, a better result for her than the first two reports.
The March 18 special election was to fill the seat vacated by Luis Chavez, after he won an election to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. He is married to Jonasson Rosas.
Several Votes Left to Count
Fresno County Election Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus reported 30 ballots are left to be counted: 10 conditional registration/provisional ballots and 20 damaged ballots needing duplication.
About 140 ballots have signature issues and voters have until April 2 to resolve them.
In addition, any ballot mailed by the deadline that the elections office receives by Tuesday, March 25, will be counted.
The next count update is Wednesday, March 26.
Election law mandates a 1% hand count tally. Because of the volume — fewer than 4,600 votes thus far — and the race being was the only item on the ballot, Kus said all ballots will be hand counted. That takes place next Monday starting at 9 a.m.
Kus will certify the votes by April 4. Then, the city council will adopt the results at its April 10 meeting, Fresno City Clerk Todd Stermer said.
On April 10, Vang will be sworn in or the council will set the July 15 runoff date. Elections must be called 90 days in advance and take place on a Tuesday, according to state law.
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