Hanford Insider: Kings Players, the June Primary Election, Community News, & Sports

Welcome And Weekly Rundown

On this episode of The Hanford Insider, we've got a double feature. First, we'll hear from Hugh Neely about the new production at the King's Players, and then Lupe Via stops by to give us all the election information we need for the june second primary. Rob will give you a look at some of this week's community events, and I'll be back with your sports report. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, may twenty fifth.

Each week we spotlight the people, events, and ideas shaping Hanford and Kings County, sharing positive stories that bring our community together. I'm your host, Rob Bentley. So let's get

Graduation Rules And Traffic Heads Up

started. In community news this week, the Hanford Joint Union High School District has announced that they will be initiating a new clear bag policy at their upcoming graduation ceremonies at Neighbor Bowl. All totes, purses, fanny packs, and backpacks must be clear see-through plastic. Beginning in the fall, this policy will apply to the bowl, school gyms, and the presentation center. If you have questions, you can contact the high school. Speaking of graduations, I won't be able to list all of the ceremonies, but I will highlight the three large ones taking place at Neighbor Bowl next week that will affect traffic around Hanford High School. Hanford High School will be the first, they'll celebrate their ceremony on Wednesday, June 3rd. Sierra Pacific's graduation will be on Thursday, June 4th, and Hanford West will close it down on Friday, June 5th. All ceremonies will take place at the bowl at 8 p.m. You must have a ticket to enter. Congratulations to all of our local graduates. Hanford Elementary Schools are inviting high school graduates to participate in an honor walk on Thursday, June 4th at 1 30 p.m. Each elementary campus in the district will be participating. For more information, contact your former elementary school. At this week's Thursday Night Marketplace, it's Family Fun Night with their band Run for Cover providing the entertainment.

Inside The Kings Players New Comedy

The Kings player just opened their brand new production, I Shot Jennifer Lopez. And if the title doesn't catch you, I don't know what will. I'm here with Hugh Neely, who is the director of the play. Welcome to the show, Hugh.

Oh, thank you. Yes.

So, Hugh, tell us about this I Shot Jennifer Lopez. Like I said, the title's very catchy, so the give us a little backstory on it.

Well, it came to be, oh gosh, back about uh 2023, actually. There was a Hanford graduate, uh, Cricket Daniel, who uh grew up and was uh graduated from Hanford High School, who has since gone on to become a very successful playwright. Her plays have been produced by dozens of companies, including professionals and amateurs, both down in Los Angeles, up in Denver, out Florida, even up in Oregon, which is where she lives now. And she thought, you know, with a whole bunch of her plays, she's got a bunch of them, she would like to have a play produced in her hometown. Because none of her old friends who are still here had ever seen any of her plays. I thought that was kind of interesting, but at the time I was working on uh a play called uh Outward Bound, which is a 100-year-old play that was a dream, kind of a dream show for me and for uh one of the regular, one of my favorite Temple Theater actors, uh Mr. Ron Bates. Uh, and we did that. But I read, oh, I think it was three or four of her plays, and I realized she had a real voice. He was uh I I liked her writing, I liked her her sense of comedy. I thought this was really something we should do here. So I uh picked one, and that's the one with the funny title, and I pitched it, uh Ron to uh to the board, and nothing happened at first because they already had pretty much their next season or next two seasons, they had plays that have been waiting for the wings, so to speak. But finally they put it on the boards for this year, and I'm very happy they did that. Um and we're so we we cast the show and we've been in rehearsals for uh almost eight weeks now. The Kings players, by the way, have done a couple of new things with this production. First of all, they've always had a situation where their matinees sell better than their evening performances. People love matinees here in Hanford. Uh and so they've decided that on the second and third weeks, their Saturday performance will be a matinee in addition to the Sunday matinees. Furthermore, they're adding one more thing only for the last weekend. They're gonna try a Thursday performance for people who are like busy all the weekend and they don't have any spare time. We'll have a Thursday performance for the very last week. It's the first Thursday of June, I believe. The show closes on Sunday, 7th of June. So uh we've got plenty of options for people to see it. We also have, well, uh we also have a couple of differences in the cast uh because of uh limitations of time schedules and everything. I ended up double casting the role of Allie, which is one of the two leads, and also double casting another smaller role. And when I say double casting, it's not an understudy. Each actor will do half the performances total. So we have two uh Allies and two Woodies. And if the audience really likes the show, they can always come back and see the other one.

For sure. For sure. So uh without you know revealing too much, can you tell us a little bit about the play and and what it's about?

Sure. It's a comedy, a really funny comedy, about two young women who are trying to make it on their own in New York City, and one of them is a photographer, hence the title, and the other one is a singer. And uh they live together, they're best friends, been bet best friends since high school. Uh and the photographer's parents have been paying for their apartments in Manhattan. And you know that's not cheap. So um unfortunately, after two years, they get a phone call saying, uh, you've got two months, uh, you've either got to make it or you gotta come home. And that just throws them into a panic. As it happens, a few weeks later, uh Nora, the photographer, is in Central Park taking pictures of the fall colors. Uh but when she gets back, her friend Allie spots somebody doing something kind of suspicious looking deep in the background of uh several of her photos, way back by a tree somewhere. So it looks like the kind of thing that somebody like TMZ or the National Enquirer would love to print. We know they love dirt. So she uh against Nora's better uh instincts, uh Allie convinces her that in order they they to say stay in New York, they need to sell these photos. Uh so she calls, and that sets a whole bunch of things in motion that includes uh an incredible bidding war, uh, that includes a surprise ending. Um it's uh it it's the story of two young women trying to make it and trying to be good people at the same time. And they also have uh it's a small cast. We have the two women, we have uh their next door neighbor, Jude, who is uh kind of a uh well, I think of him as a Bob Denver type, but he's kind of uh a little too much um suggestion of chemical adjustment to his personality, but he's very funny and uh a sweet guy, basically. Then that we will also meet a lawyer. We will also meet the two guys from uh TM, one from TMZ and one from the National Enquirer, and maybe a surprise extra person at the end.

So well, this sounds like a fantastic production. And if you're interested in getting tickets and finding more about the Show Times, you can visit kingsplayers.org. Uh Hugh, thank you for joining us today.

I'll tell you, I do have what to offer my official guarantee for this show. Oh, here we go. Yeah, this is my guarantee. You can find me at the theater. If you don't laugh your head off, I'll refund your ticket price. That's quite a deal. All right, thanks, Hugh. All right, thank you.

Memorials Museums Concerts And Car Show

Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. The annual Marine Corps League Avenue Flags will be held on May 23rd, 24th, and 25th at the Grangeville Cemetery. The official ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. on Memorial Day. Come and pay tribute to our fallen heroes. It's truly a moving experience. The Carnegie Museum of Kings County's 2026 exhibition building Kings County is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is located at 109 East 8th Street in downtown Hanford. Learn more at Carnegie Museum of Kingscounty.org. The children's Storybook Garden and Museum will be holding their annual farm day on Saturday, May 30th at 10 a.m. Visit storybookgarden.org for details. On Sunday, May 31st, the King's Symphony Orchestra will be holding their annual Pops concert in the Hanford Civic Auditorium Park beginning at 7 p.m. On June 3rd, the Kings County Freedom Memorial will be held at the County Government Center beginning at 9 a.m. And finally, the Carnegie Car Show is coming up. On Friday, June 5th, the Hanford Fox Theater will be showing American graffiti at 7 p.m. On Saturday, June 6th, there will be about 200 cars and trucks on display, a special Low Rider bike show in the Carnegie Parking Line, a food truck analy in the Banksfield parking lot, and a vendor fair and games for the kids in Pacific Auditorium Park. It's fun for the whole family. You can find out more about this free event and even register at Carnegie CarShow.com. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available. Well,

How To Vote In Kings County

the electoral process is open once again, and the June 2nd California State Primary is here. And we are so excited to have with us Lupi Via once again, the Kings County Register of Voters since 2019. And uh Lupi, welcome to the show once again. I think this is your third time uh on the show, but man, I learned so much every time.

Yeah, thank you, Rob. Thank you for having me, and I appreciate you coming out and giving us the opportunity to speak to your uh audience and to the public in regards to our upcoming June 2nd statewide direct primary, uh, what we call midterm, governmentorial midterm. Um, and you know, we as other um election cycles, we are making our county or employing the Vo Voter Choice Act or VCA election model, meaning that our voters in Kings County can go vote at any vote center within the county. For the June 2nd primary, we're gonna start employing our vote centers this weekend, actually, uh May 23rd. Our office will be open um at 8 a.m. or 9 p.m. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And we're gonna operate all the way through June 3rd or June 2nd, which is election day. Um, and then next weekend on the 30th, we're gonna open an additional six centers, and those centers are throughout Kings County. We have uh two centers in the city of Hanford. That's gonna be Longfield Center, located at 560 South Doddy Street in Hanford. Uh, we're gonna have uh room E at St. Edwards, 63, with College of the Secoyas on 13th Avenue. And then in the City of Lemoore, we're gonna have two centers, one being the Limore Civic Auditorium on C Street, 435 C Street at St. Charles, and the Office of Education at 676 or 876 East D Street in Lemoore. Um, one new location we have is in the City of Avenue. The City of Avenue, we moved locations away from the recreation center, right across the park, to the Family Engagement Center, which is part of the Reef Sunset Unified School District, located at 205 North Park Avenue. And then the City of Corcoran will be providing services at the Corcoran's Veterans Memorial Building, located at 1000 Van Dorsten Avenue, um, Corcoran. And of course, people are welcome to come to my office and cast their votes in person at any time between now and June 2nd. Uh, we'll be open for services. Additionally, we have 11 drop boxes throughout Kings County where our voters should feel comfortable dropping off their ballot. That's the number one source of delivery of ballots to our office. And I can show you numbers to reflect that statement in that last election we had, they beat the USBS by hundreds. So we encourage people to continue to use the straw boxes. We pick them up within the elections code of 96 hours prior to the 10th day, and every 48 hours thereafter, meaning after Saturday, we'll be out there picking up our ballots every other day. So please drop off your ballot, bring it into our office, mail it in. Please make sure you cast your vote for this uh important June 2nd primary. Our ballots are pretty busy. We have a ballot that's gonna have uh you're gonna find it that is 61 candidates for the office of governor, uh, which is kind of a little bit too much. Um, I'm concerned for our voters that are gonna be having fatigue and going through that extensive ballot. Um, don't expect anything less in November. Our November ballot, we are planning on having a two to three car ballot simply because of propositions and some acts uh changes to the Constitution, California Constitution. I know for a fact we have three changes to that, to the constitution as after today. We got five uh initiatives that have been qualified for the November um general election that we have in November 2nd. So um it's gonna be a very busy season for us and a very season for our voters. You know, they're gonna have a lot of selections to make. Uh, but needless to say, please come out, vote, cast your vote, make account. And again, you can send it to our USPS services, our Dropbox services, or come to our office or any of our vote centers. You're free to drop off your ballot there at that vote center as well.

Election Security And New Equipment

You've shared with me in the past about security and how important it is to the integrity of the department. And I know that the county has made an investment in hardware and software to help assure that the it's a fair election, yeah.

Yeah, that's a great question, Rob. Let me tell you that we um security, election security, not just our supplies and materials, but our staff and our poll workers, you know, we always uh that's paramount to us. It's very, very important to myself, it's very important to the county, and it shows by the investment they've allowed me to make um in regards to our election voting system. We did procure with we uh purchased equipment that we are being employing for the November general election. Um that upgrade is gonna allow us to provide greater security to our servers, greater security to our value marketing devices, to the um printers that are connected to those devices, and um is gonna bring a sense of relief and uh a higher sense of transparency to our voters. And we're hoping that it's embraced. We're hoping that voters enjoy the new printers that are gonna be employed come November. Um unfortunately the purchase was made late too late in the year to uh be able to deploy for the June 2nd. You know, preparation for an election is months ahead. Uh, for example, for November, we're gonna start planning uh come June. Um, you know, our uh July, uh early July is the uh candidates uh start filing for office. And then you got in August, you got measures, initiative initiatives that are due to our office. So it's rock and roll between now and then. Um in regards to that, I also um there was a big investment made into security last election cycle. We were the Board of Supervisors for Kings County allowed me to make purchases in regards to physical security. We were able to upgrade our uh FOB access system to our building. Um we upgraded our doors, uh, retrofitted all of our doors here at the office at the warehouse. Uh, we installed um surveillance cameras, so we're under surveillance outside our offices. We have a vault in each one of our buildings, and those vaults now have uh surveillance cameras as well. So uh that in itself shows the investment on behalf of our board of supervisors and county as they're committed to ensuring that our elections are secure, safe, and transparent. So it's it's a very great question. I'm very happy to talk about that because it it it kind of um it stands from what we do here in Kings, and that is being transparent um with our public and our voters.

Will In Person Voting Return

So let's have fun with this one. I I remember when I was uh uh teaching school and they would have voters come to the school, and there would be all these uh schools that would open up their doors for elections, churches, and everything, and you had a lot of different places that people could go and vote. But with this Voters' Choice Act now, it's all mail in ballots. Do you ever see um foresee a day when you know there's more people coming to vote in person rather than the the mail ballots?

You know, it's it's it's a tough question to answer, right? Because only um how can we predict the future? As you know, and and maybe maybe a lot of our voters um throughout our state and nation are aware, you know, there's a uh President Trump has signed an executive order, SACE Act. Part of that is it involves getting away from mailing ballots, you know. We already saw litigation pending on those issues, but statewide, there's an executive order that was signed by Governor Newsom back in 2020, and he had to deal a lot with the COVID. So when COVID was um, you know, it hit us, we were required to then distance ourselves, six-foot distancing. We're required to have facilities that were larger. So, in order to accommodate that, they created what is called Votage Choice Act. So the Votage Choice Act, even though it's multiple days and early voting opportunities, it takes you away from a single traditional day of voting. We here in Kings County still experience a high turnout on election day. So people do still come in to vote in person. This election, if I was to put money, I'm gonna say that we are gonna be extremely busy come Tuesday, June 2nd, and Monday, June 1st. Just the uh return of our ballots, as of today, we have approximately 4,000 ballots that have been returned. That's out of 60,000 that we mailed out. So because of the number of candidates on our ballot, the number of issues on both of those ballots, uh the cards, I expect people to come out Monday and Tuesday and vote in person. So you have your population who are used to voting in person and they'll wait till election day. And for us here in the office, even though it creates a little bit uh more challenging times and releasing the final results of the election, we welcome it. We don't care if you vote early or if you vote in person on election day. All we want is for you to come and exercise the privilege you have as a citizen of the United States and its voters to cast that vote. So please take advantage of that.

So we're not going to be pulling out our phones and selecting our candidates anytime soon, then.

Um I hope not. I think that would be an extremely challenging um, you know, it'd be a challenging situation, and just in security reasons, we just spoke about security. Uh it makes me nervous you saying that. So I hope that, you know, maybe after I retire they can do that, but not during my lifetime. After you retire, for sure.

Where Results Appear Election Night

Uh Lupi, the night of elections, people are looking for a place where they can go and find out. Um, we always see when we go to the elections page, we can see the Kings County results and the state results. Uh, what's the best way to get to that page?

So um, if our you know, your listeners or are folks within the county, they're welcome to visit votekeingscounty.com. That is votekeingscounty.com. You're gonna go to the election results, click on that page, and you'll see our format of the elections results. We are required to uh do releases of those results every two hours on election day. Um, tabulation of our ballots starts the day we mail them out for our May um our June 2nd primary. The ballots went out May 4th. So as soon as we start getting those. Ballots back, we can start tabulating them and preparing them. But we cannot release the vote until election day, 8 p.m. So what voters are gonna see if they go visit our page on election night. Um the first release is gonna include um all the vote-by-mail ballots that were received from May 4th all the way up through uh say I would say May 30th or even June 1st. That's gonna be your first release. The second release is gonna include your live votes, meaning people that voted in person let it be early voting or let it be election night voting. So we're required by law to count all the live votes before we go home on election night. We cannot go home until those votes are counted. Um so our numbers are reported to the state. We then create the report and release that report to our public. We are required to do releases every two hours. So your first release is gonna come around 8 05, 8 10. That's again your vote by mail ballots, early vote by mail ballots. Second release is gonna be vote votes that we're casting person, and then our third release will be votes that we're casting person as well. Then the following day, which is June 3rd, is the day that we kind of sit back, catch our breath, uh, you know, and collect our equipment that we deploy to our different vote centers. And then our canvas period, which is a 30-day period, starts Thursday, June 4th. And there we start counting the ballots that were drop off at our drop box on election night, the vote-by-mail ballots that are coming in. So that's what our canvas periods look like, and then processing any conditional provisional votes, um, and so on and so forth until we certify the election. Um, but we try to certify as soon as we can. Uh, there's uh processes that we have to follow. Uh there's selection code that is regards to postmark and cure letters because it's challenges on signatures. So we have to go through that process before we can certify the election. But on election day, people can go into our webpage, vote kingscounty.com, click on that page, election results, and you'll have the latest results. And again, you'll have results every two hours at minimum until we count all the votes that we're casting person.

Turnout Matters And Ballot Deadlines

And what words of encouragement do you have for the Kings County voters who are notoriously absent at the polls? Uh our turn our turnout rate for elections hasn't been great. Um, we're always working to improve that. Your office does a fantastic job helping to get the word out. But how would you encourage voters to get out there and participate in the fair election?

You know, Rob, we um you got some difficult questions today, but that is a really great question because we internally have tried to brainstorm right and come up with ideas. What is it can we do to encourage our folks to again exercise their privilege of voting? Um you know, other than saying, look, there's there's so many uh decisions that are to be made on a ballot, right? Important decisions that can impact you, your next generation, your children, your neighbors, your friends, um that require your vote and your decision making. You know, I can't stress enough how important it is to vote. Um the fact that we're making decisions on who's gonna represent you at the White House, at the Capitol in Sacramento, down the street at your city hall, around the corner to your local schools, those are the people that represent you, your water districts, your cemeteries districts. So there is a lot to be said on our ballots. Our June primary, this is a midterm, you have state and federal offices. Your November general election is gonna have your local offices, and that is it's super important for people to vote and pay attention to what we have. Taxes, you know, do you want your taxes to increase? There's measures. Um what we call TOTs to increase taxes for hotels, you know, people that stay there. So those are important issues that face each one of us and that impacts each one of us no matter how you see it or how you cut it. So I highly encourage we spend thousands of dollars to administer an election. Um, and this June 2nd primary is no different. You're talking between $350,000 to $400,000 that is our money spent locally to administer this election. So I can't stress enough the importance it is for you to exercise your right to vote. And we encourage you to come out, please come visit us. Uh, again, go in person if you like. If that's the way you want to vote, mail it in, drop it off. Uh, the one thing I do want to share is that the Postal Service is not guaranteeing if you drop off your ballot on election day, that that ballot is going to make it to our office with the postmark of election day, June 2nd. My advice to any voter who waits until election day to drop off their ballot is to walk it into the lobby of the post office and demand that they stamp your ballot in front of you as postmarked. You want that date on your ballot. If that date's marked on your ballot and we get it within seven days after the election, we're gonna count your vote. If we get it within eight days and it's not postmarked, we're not gonna count your vote. Count on that. But it's very important that you keep that in mind. Don't go drop off a ballot at a blue receptacle uh out in the island district that he's never gonna make our office within the time frame. Drive it to the vote center, drop it off at a vote center, drive it to my office, we'll take it from you. Drop drop it off at any drop box. Those drop boxes are gonna be locked at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2nd, and those ballots will be picked up at 8 p.m. on the 2nd. So if you can make it there, drop it off. But you know, just make sure you cast your vote. We would love to see a higher turnout than normal. Um, you know, we normally hit 28, 25, 28% on primary elections. Is is it's sad to say, but it's an extremely low number. I know better that our voters here in Kings County are more engaged, and we should show that and and have a great turnout this June 2nd election.

Great words of advice, Lupi. Always enjoy having you on the show. And again, um I'm very impressed by the operation of the elections. You've had a busy year, and uh 2026 is gonna be this is just the beginning. We've got the midterms in November with city councils. Some schools are probably gonna be going for some school bonds. But uh, thank you so much for everything that you do for the citizens of Kings County.

Thank you, Rob. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to dedicate you know some of my personal time and of course, you know, investing my time for what I get paid to do. Um, it's a pleasure for my staff to work and you know and stick to what our philosophy of being transparent, ensuring that we conduct an election with the highest degree of integrity and commitment to the citizens and voters of Kings County. And again, I ask that you please come on and vote. Keep us busy, keep us going, bring your ballot. We'll all count your ballot. And anyone is encouraged to visit our vote centers or my office if you're interested in observing the process, or if you have any questions, do not hesitate. You can email us or you can call us at 559-852-4401. We'll be more than happy to answer those questions for you. And again, we hope you vote. June 2nd is around the corner. Please vote. Thank you so much.

Local Playoff Sports Highlights

And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.

Kira Nunes and Emma Guzman highlighted the Huskies' day at the plate, each knocking in three runs, while despite some traffic on the bases throughout, junior Rylan Montoya held it down in the circle for all seven in the victory. On Friday, Hanford West hit the road for the first time in the playoffs, traveling up to take on two seed Kerman. Similar to Wednesday's game, the Huskies fell behind one to nothing after the first inning. After tying the game in the second, the Hanford West offense continued its steady approach, aided by four Lions errors, the Huskies scored two runs in the third, one in the fifth, and three in the seventh to put the pressure on. Kerman wouldn't go down without a fight, though, scratching across four runs in the final three innings, but the lead that the Huskies built would hold as Hanford West secured the seven to five upset. It was another solid seven-inning performance from Rylan Montoya in the circle, scattering 15 hits and working around three Huskies airs, only allowing four earned runs, with Addison Owens headlining the offense with a two-hit two RBI day at the plate. This sets up a championship matchup with one seed Chowchilla, who got here by compiling a 21-6-1 overall record and an 11-1 record in the Northwest Sequoia League North, sharing the title with Liberty Madeira. Good news for the Huskies Hanford West has the ownage this season over the tribe, a low-scoring defensive battle with some critical errors that the Huskies won 2-0 back in March. Thursday's meeting will be for All the Marbles, a section title on the line under the lights at Margie Wright Diamond, 7 p.m. scheduled for first pitch. Both Hanford High Baseball and Softball teams advanced past the first round of the playoffs, but unfortunately, that's where the journey would end for both teams. The 13-seed softball team saw their upset run fall short in a 14-6 loss to five-seed Dainuba. That puts a wrap on the Bullpups' 10-18 overall season with a fourth-place league finish. And after taking down two-seed Ridgeview in a stellar upset, the 15-seed Hanford High Baseball team saw their season come to a close in the quarterfinals at the hands of Division Foe Taler Western in a 10-2 loss. The Bullpups' season comes to a close with a 13-16 overall record and a third place league finish. On next week's episode, we'll have results from the Hanford West Softball Championship game as well as track results from CIF Masters. As always, if you have a score report or a team update for any team in any sport at any level, you can let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

Support The Show And Stay Connected

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