James A. Kus is Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters, appointed by the county Board of Supervisors in 2021 to succeed Brandi Orth, who retired to care for her ailing mother, and re-elected unopposed in 2022; his office currently oversees roughly 507,000 active registered voters. No verified information on his education or career background before this office was found in public records.
In the 2026 election cycle, Fresno City Council President Mike Karbassi, a candidate challenging Kus for the office, has publicly criticized his administration’s record, citing roughly 300 voters who received incorrect ballots before an election was certified, complaints of duplicate ballots being sent to voters, and concerns about voter-roll maintenance. Kus has responded that state law requires new ballots to be issued whenever a voter’s information is updated, and says his office welcomes election observers at all levels. These are allegations raised by a political opponent during an active campaign rather than findings from an independent investigation.
