Strong voter turnout in Fresno County, with 10,000 mail-in ballots received daily

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — The strong weekend voter turnout continued into Monday as thousands of voters in Fresno County cast their ballots with just one day until Election Day.

“We definitely get a mix here downtown,” said James Kus, Fresno County county clerk and registrar. “Most of the time these are voters who either want to cast a ballot or vote in person.”

Kus says about a third of all voters in Fresno County have already cast their ballots. Officials receive more than 10,000 mail-in ballots daily. The race to count them is now on.

“We are processing as many email votes as possible that have come through drop boxes, the mail or from vote centers overnight,” said Nysen Armenta, Fresno County Elections Program Coordinator.

From verifying signatures to cutting open envelopes to unfolding ballots, the process is designed to protect the voter, Armenta said.

“The way we even put them in the extractors is that all of the voters' information is turned away from the worker. So if we remove the ballot, it is actually a secret ballot,” Armenta said. “We don’t know whose envelope it came from.”

Officials expect high voter turnout to continue through Tuesday, when polls across California open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Kus encourages everyone to skip the line on Election Day and vote early. There are still options in Fresno County Monday evening.

“We have our drop boxes,” Kus said. “We have 67 mailboxes distributed throughout the county. Locations for both vote centers and drop boxes are available online at VoteFresnoCounty.com.”

There’s also still time to register to vote. California offers same-day voter registration, but you must do it in person, meaning you can still go to a vote center, register and cast your vote on Monday or Tuesday.