TC voter turnout at nearly 34%

Mathis, Sigala still top two in local Assembly race

Tulare County voter turnout continues to creep up as the county elections office processes ballots.

As of Friday, turnout was at 33.61 percent based on the county elections office counting 53,218 ballots. The were 161,628 registered voters in the county for the June 5 state primary.

There are less than 9,000 ballots still to be processed in the county.

Only 12,076 voted on election day in the county. Vote-by-mail was at 23,434 as of Friday and another 18,818 were vote-by-mail at precincts.

As more ballots are processed, the lead for the top two candidates in the race for State Assembly 26th District — Devon Mathis and Jose Sigala — continues to hold over third-place vote-getter Warren Gubler.

The District 26 race has been tight since the first election reports were released and continues to be close, but incumbent Republican Mathis and Democrat Sigala appear to be slightly widening the gap between Republican Gubler.

Voters in Kern, Inyo and Tulare counties vote on the Assembly District 26 election, with a majority of the votes coming from Tulare County. Early on, Gubler was winning in Tulare County, but has since been overtaken by Mathis. Currently in the county, Mathis, who is a Porterville native, has 30.96 percent of the vote (15,626), followed by Gubler with 30.01 percent (15,145) and Sigala with 29.10 percent (14,687).

Including votes from all three counties, Mathis still holds onto the lead with 30.4 percent (17,771) and is followed by Sigala with 29.4 percent (17,225) and Gubler with 28.2 percent (16,502), according to the state elections office.

The top two from this statewide race will move on to the November midterms.

State law requires the election to be certified by July 5.