Thursday's count in Fresno did two things at once. A ballot update tallying roughly 20,000 additional votes widened the leads of all three anti-SEDA frontrunners for Fresno City Council — and within hours, the sitting council voted 6–1 to table SEDA itself, Mayor Jerry Dyer's $4 billion Southeast Development Area, 'indefinitely.' The results are still unofficial and about 102,500 ballots remain to be counted countywide, but the political meaning of the week was already clear enough to move a mega-project that has haunted Fresno mayors for decades, Fresnoland reported.
This report combines Fresnoland's Thursday results coverage and its account of the SEDA vote with the Mid Valley Times' second preliminary results update, which is drawn from the California Secretary of State's office and the Fresno County Registrar of Voters, and Streetsblog California's account of the county's tax measures. Where the outlets' figures differ slightly because they were published at different points in the count, both are given.
District 1: Singh's 16 votes become 199
The race of most interest to Central Valley Punjabi readers remains the tightest in the county. Nonprofit leader Naindeep Singh — executive director of the Jakara Movement and a Central Unified school board member — saw his microscopic 16-vote election-night lead over State Center Community College District Trustee Rob Fuentes jump to 199 votes in Thursday's update, at 50.96 per cent to Fuentes' 49.04 per cent, Fresnoland reported. Singh did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the updated results Thursday.
Singh's campaign survived an extraordinary final week: he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence days before the election, then cleared after Fresno police admitted they had made an error — a sequence Awaaz Punjab has reported as it unfolded, including the police chief's subsequent statements. Streetsblog California, summarising the race for a statewide audience, put it this way: Singh 'was arrested for suspicion of DUI last week, while locked into a tight race with Rob Fuentes for a city council position. After the Fresno police admitted they “made an error,” Singh was cleared of all charges.'
Districts 7 and 3: a victory declared and a double-digit lead
In District 7, community organiser Ariana Martinez Lott ran up her 13-point lead and declared victory on Thursday over political consultant Nav Gurm, who had conceded the race on Wednesday with Lott ahead by roughly 870 votes. 'This is just a reflection of what grassroots campaigns can look like,' Lott told Fresnoland, 'and that it is possible to win against the business-as-usual here in Fresno, where we've seen too much of the same political establishment pipeline picking who's next.' She spoke while making dinner for her children before heading to City Hall, where she had planned to urge her future colleagues to vote down SEDA at the council's first post-election meeting — a vote that, in the event, the outgoing council took itself that same afternoon.
In District 3, Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula's double-digit lead over Fresno Unified Trustee Keshia Thomas grew slightly, holding at 54.19 per cent to 45.81 per cent. Lott, Singh and Arambula campaigned as an informal trio of SEDA opponents who could reshape the council's balance against Mayor Dyer — which is precisely why Thursday's other event happened when it did.
The SEDA vote: 6–1, tabled 'indefinitely'
SEDA is the plan to build, in essence, a new Clovis from scratch in southeast Fresno: a $4 billion mega-project carrying a $3 billion funding shortfall. Fresno Unified, the city's biggest employer, estimated last year that it could cause 11 district schools to shut down, and neighbouring Central Unified and Sanger Unified both announced their opposition through the spring and summer. Residents had packed City Hall repeatedly over the last year, and on Thursday an overflow crowd arrived with fresh opposition signs ready for a marathon hearing, Fresnoland reported.
Source: Fresnoland — 'Fresno council puts SEDA mega-development on ice indefinitely' (Nov. 6, 2026)
They never got it. Minutes before the public hearing was set to begin, the council came out of private meetings with its lawyers and, at about 4:45 p.m., voted 6–1 to table SEDA indefinitely. Councilmember Mike Karbassi made the motion and Councilmember Miguel Arias seconded it; northeast Fresno Councilmember Nick Richardson was the lone dissenter. What stopped SEDA, Fresnoland reported, were the latest results released that afternoon by County Elections Clerk James Kus, showing Singh pulling ahead. With the prospect of Singh, Lott and Arambula taking power, Arias said approving SEDA in a lame-duck session would have been futile: 'We would have been caught up in litigation only to undo this action in January. Elections have consequences… I believe once the intent of voters became clear this afternoon, this was the eventual result.'
Source: Fresnoland — 'Fresno council puts SEDA mega-development on ice indefinitely' (Nov. 6, 2026)
'This is the greatest policy win in some ways in the city of Fresno's history,' said Dillon Savory, executive director of the Central Labor Council. 'I can't remember people-power winning at this level in Fresno.' Councilmember Annalisa Perea, who has just won her bid to join the State Assembly, said in a statement that 'the question before us was not whether Fresno needs to plan for future growth, but whether the plan presented tonight was the right plan for our city.' Southeast Fresno councilmember Brandon Vang said he felt a kinship with the incoming slate: 'The consensus of these three campaigns was that people in D5 [his district] didn't want SEDA. The risk is so great. Why not invest in your current Fresno residents?'
Source: Fresnoland — 'Fresno council puts SEDA mega-development on ice indefinitely' (Nov. 6, 2026)
Opponents were elated but wary of the wording. 'My biggest concern is the word “indefinitely,”' said southeast Fresno resident Brett Thompson. 'I don't want to see this thing come back.' Southeast Fresno farmer David Ramming wanted the new council to finish it in January: 'We'd like to see it finished and them just vote no. Finish the thing!' Fresnoland notes SEDA has long been known locally as a 'zombie project' that successive mayors revive and drop as the financial difficulty of building a new town from scratch becomes apparent. For Mayor Dyer, whose administration spent a year arguing SEDA would benefit the city financially, Thursday was a major failure.
Source: Fresnoland — 'Fresno council puts SEDA mega-development on ice indefinitely' (Nov. 6, 2026)
County and school races in the same count
For the Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 1 seat, Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco padded her double-digit lead over Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi to 58.05 per cent against 41.95 per cent — a lead of 3,836 votes out of nearly 24,000 cast in the district, Fresnoland reported; the Mid Valley Times, using the Registrar's 2:50 p.m. Thursday totals, put the same race at 58.1 to 41.9. Pacheco campaigned on reducing emergency-response times in rural west-county communities, strengthening business opportunities, protecting farmers and growing affordable housing. The winner replaces Brian Pacheco, who has held the seat since 2014. Neither candidate immediately returned a request for comment Thursday.
In Fresno Unified, the region's largest school district, retired teacher Karen Steed remained solidly ahead in the McLane-area race at 38.74 per cent, though longtime incumbent Veva Islas climbed back into second place Thursday at 31.06 per cent, ahead of Mirna Garcia at 29.71 per cent; Steed declared victory late Thursday while Islas said she was not conceding and would wait for all votes to be counted. In Sunnyside, incumbent Valerie Davis's lead over union leader Riley Talford shrank to just 77 votes, 50.32 per cent to 48.98 per cent. In the Edison area, Fresno Councilmember Miguel Arias remained above 40 per cent against four challengers, his nearest rival Daren Miller at 18.51 per cent.
The tax measures: S stuck, D solid, A rejected
Measure S, the county transportation tax renewal that supporters call critical to the future of county roads, remained stuck with 53.01 per cent of 154,024 voters opposed, Fresnoland reported. The signature-led measure needs only a simple majority, and it would replace a 30-year sales tax expiring on July 1. 'Yes on S' spokesperson Andy Levine said the fight is not over, pointing to the more than 100,000 ballots still uncounted: 'There's still absolutely a path for this to get us over the edge — just waiting to see how next Tuesday's count looks.'
Measure D, the City of Fresno general tax Mayor Dyer placed on the ballot as a backstop if Measure S failed, appeared on solid ground at 57.63 per cent in favour; Streetsblog California notes it raises the city sales tax by the same half-cent the expiring county tax charges, and would take effect if Measure S fails, with the mayor and a council majority pledging to use the money for transportation. County voters were also rejecting Measure A, the proposed hotel tax, by 56.06 per cent — the Mid Valley Times put the same measure at 56.3 per cent against in its earlier tally.
Fresno County is home to one of America's largest Punjabi communities, and District 1's Singh — a Jakara Movement leader whose late-campaign arrest and clearance became a community flashpoint — is now 199 votes from a council seat, with the anti-SEDA bloc he campaigned in positioned to hold real power over development, schools and farm-country services. The SEDA decision alone affects southeast Fresno land, 11 threatened schools and a $4 billion building programme; the supervisors' race decides representation for the county's rural west side, where many Punjabi farming families live and work.
What happens next
Counting is not close to finished. Clerk James Kus told Fresnoland turnout is on pace for about 51 per cent — above the roughly 45 per cent of the 2022 gubernatorial election, below 2018's 56 per cent — and the next results drops are expected Tuesday, November 10, with another following on Friday. County officials have until December 4 to report final official results to the California Secretary of State, who has until December 11 to certify the election, the Mid Valley Times reported. District 1, at 199 votes with some 102,500 ballots still out countywide, cannot responsibly be called yet. The new council takes office in January — when SEDA's opponents, if their leads hold, will decide whether 'indefinitely' becomes 'no.'
Source: Fresnoland — Fresno County live election results, November 2026 midterms (updated Nov. 7, 2026)