Officials still counting votes in Fresno County

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The votes are still being counted from Tuesday's election. Fresno County Clerk Brandi Orth says after the election there were 100 thousand to count. The number is going down.

"We counted about another 23,000 ballots, so now our outstanding ballots are down to about 77,000. "

Other counties are also still counting, as of Friday afternoon there were about 50,000 unprocessed ballots in Madera, Kings, Tulare and Merced Counties combined. On top of that, there are thousands of provisional ballots, those are the mail in ballots dropped off at the polls and in Fresno County, there were about 8 hundred who walked in, registered and voted on election day.

"It will still be several more days because by the time we get the vote by mails done we have to do the individual research on the conditionals and we have 24,000 of those."

The vote count could change in at least one race. The contest for State Senate in the 12th district between Anna Caballero and Rob Poythress remains close with Caballero leading by less than one percent. The district covers 6 counties and the counting will continue.

The positive news is that the voter turnout is expected to be around 50 percent, a big jump over most midterm elections. The next vote count is a week away. A final canvass of votes is due no later than December 6th.