Fresno County voter turnout down, some signatures will be challenged

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- As many races in Fresno County are too close to call there are still tens of thousands of ballots waiting to be processed.

The Registrar of Voters says there will be another report from his office Thursday night, and another on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

"It was a very busy day and busy night. We were active until almost 1 a.m. gathering materials from our vote centers," said James Kus, the Fresno County Registrar of Voters.

In addition to the thousands of people who voted early, voted by mail, and placed their ballots in drop boxes, thousands of others filed into the county's 52 vote centers to vote on election day -- right up until polls closed.

"I know we had lines at many places, some at 8 pm, but we were done with processing our voters by 8:45, so we processed them smoothly," said Kus.

Kus said the only issue that popped up was at hands of mother nature.

Stormy weather knocked the power out at two voting centers. It slowed things down a bit and sent some voters to other locations for about an hour.

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There were no reported issues with observers, who have been at vote centers and the elections warehouse for weeks.

"There's a lot of races in general in Fresno County, over 100 different contests. There are some that are pretty close," said Kus.

Overall, turnout is trending down. Kus says the average voter turnout for a midterm election is about 50 percent in Fresno County.

He projects this year, will be around 40 percent.

Part of the ballot counting process is verifying signatures by matching them against the voter's registration history.

"If you haven't re-registered in a long time, I do recommend you update your registration so that we have more examples of your signature," said Kus.

If you forgot to sign your ballot or if your signature is challenged, you will receive a letter from the elections office and will have until Dec. 5 to defend your signature.

The election results will be certified on Dec. 8.