More votes counted in Valley counties. Here’s what that means for Merced-area candidates

Ballots counted this week in Valley counties are having a big impact on local races for state Assembly, Congress and other local seats.

For example. Fresno County election officials reported new votes from almost 34,000 additional ballots Tuesday evening, providing more clarity for some close midterm general election contests, but also tightening up a key race for Congress that is being closely watched nationwide.

Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus reported that his election workers have so far processed more than 187,600 ballots from the Nov. 8 election, with approximately 21,000 more to process and count. Those include about 1,000 provisional and conditional registration ballots for which voter information needs to be verified before they can be counted.

Last Thursday night, before the long Veterans Day weekend, the county had processed just under 154,000 ballots.

Tuesday’s Fresno County update provided a growing margin between candidates Esmeralda Soria and Mark Pazin in the 27th Assembly District, one of the closest contests in the state.

Democrat Soria, now a member of the Fresno City Council, now has 40,702 votes, or 51.3%, across the district, which includes portions of Fresno, Merced and Madera counties. Pazin, the former Merced County sheriff running as a Republican, trails with 38,630 votes or 48.7%.

Soria’s lead of 2,072 votes is an increase since Monday night, when Merced County issued its latest figures. The third county in the mix, Madera County, does not expect to issue a new round of results until Wednesday.

With the number of outstanding votes shrinking in Fresno County, there is less opportunity for candidates or measures that are trailing in the results to make up ground when Kus’ office issues its next update on Friday afternoon.

13th Congressional District

The new batch of votes from Fresno County kept longtime Assemblymember Adam Gray, D-Merced, in a slim lead over Republican businessman and farmer John Duarte of Hughson in their contest to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The hotly contested Gray-Duarte race in the district, which is heavily weighted toward the North Valley, has been a squeaker since election night. With the addition of the latest Fresno County results, Gray has 56,521 votes, or 50.3%, compared to 55,921 votes or 49.7% for Duarte.

City Council and other local races

Meanwhile, the latest election results released this week by the Merced County Registrar of Voters show Fue Xiong outpacing incumbent Delray Shelton in the race for Merced City Council District 6.

Xiong was ahead of Shelton by one vote a week ago: 856 to 855. As of Monday, Xiong significantly grew his lead to 1,712 votes over Shelton’s 1,582.

District 6 covers much of the Merced north of Yosemite Avenue.

Shelton, who first took office in 2018, is a lieutenant in the Merced County Sheriff’s Office assigned to administrative services. Xiong is an engineer for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

As of Monday, the Merced County Registrar’s Office had 54,850 votes counted out of 124,665 registered voters. showing voter turnout at about 44%. Elections officials have until Dec. 8 to certify the results.

Meanwhile, in District 2, which covers southwest Merced, retired mailman Ronnie DeAnda appears poised to win over incumbent Fernando Echevarria, with 72.5% of the vote compared to 26.8% respectively.

Three candidates competed for northeast Merced’s District 4 City Council seat, held by outgoing Councilman Kevin Blake. Legal counselor Shane Smith also appears on track for victory, with 46.75% of the vote over competitors Casey Steed (31.84%) and Javier Fuentes (20.74%).

For more results visit the Merced County Registrar of Voter’s website.

This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 10:10 AM.