Fresno County voting breaks records as voters stand in lines for hours
Despite long lines on Election Night and record-breaking turnout, officials say there were only a few minor electioneering issues.
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Voters broke records Tuesday night as long lines built up at vote centers throughout Fresno County.
Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters James Kus says more than 40,000 voters turned up at the polls to vote in person or register on the spot.
In-person numbers far outpaced turnout in the 2020 presidential election.
"Just based on the high turnout, we had a lot of folks that are interested and maybe got interested late in the process, and so they wanted to get out there to vote and participate," Kus said.
At vote centers from northeast Fresno to Clovis and even Coalinga, it took hours for officials to close the polls.
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Voters were still in line and allowed to cast their ballot at 8 pm.
County election officials worked past midnight to tabulate nearly all the ballots voters cast in person.
The first wave of data also included all early vote-by-mail ballots, about 150,000.
"Throughout the night, we actually provided three updates where we had results coming in from our vote centers -- in-person voting, early, and Election Day -- that we added to that in-person," Kus said.
Counting is still underway at the Fresno County Elections Warehouse.
Officials are working through about 100,000 vote-by-mail ballots received at drop boxes, vote centers, and through the mail on Tuesday.
"We put them through our machines to process. Signature comparison happens, and then they go on to be extracted, unfolded, and boxed for tabulation," Fresno County Elections Program Coordinator Nysen Armenta explained.
Kus plans to release a results update by Thursday night.
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"We'll continue to process and process and process. If necessary, we'll work on Saturday, and then after the holiday, we'll be coming back on Tuesday, and we'll have another results update on Tuesday by 5 pm," he said.
Despite long lines on Election Night and record-breaking turnout, Kus says there were only a few minor electioneering issues.
Overall, he says everything went smoothly in Fresno County.
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