The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Dave Rogers / For The Record

Early voting begins Monday, June 3, for the June 15 runoff election for two seats on Orange City Council.

Incumbent Annette Pernell is being challenged for the District 4 “Historic District” seat by Mary McKenna; and incumbent Bill Mello is being challenged for the Place 6 at-large seat by Caroline Mazzola Hennigan.

The terms for both seats are three years.

Both incumbents finished second in a three- or four-way race May 4. Because neither McKenna nor Hennigan was able to win a 50 percent plus one majority, runoff elections were called for.

Mello, a real estate and banking investor, is running for his fifth consecutive term while Pernell is running for her second straight and third overall. McKenna, director of Golden Triangle Hospice, defeated Pernell for the District 4 seat in 2013 and was, in turn, defeated in 2016 by Pernell, a paralegal for a Beaumont law firm.

Hennigan, special education coordinator for Little Cypress-Mauriceville schools, is making her first run for council.

Early voting will be conducted at the Orange Public Library, 220 N. 5^th St. from Monday through Friday from June 3 to June 11.

Hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except for Tuesday, June 4 and Tuesday, June 11, when the polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Two out of every three votes in the May 4 election were cast in early or mail-in voting.

Only 11.5 percent of the 2,487 registered voters in District 4 cast votes for the May 4 election. For the Place 6 at-large race, only 9.1 percent of the city’s 11,281 registered voters cast a ballot.

Runoff Election Day is Saturday, June 15.

Election Day voting in the McKenna-Pernell race is at the West Orange-Cove CISD Administration Building.

That is one of four Election Day polling places for the city-wide race between Hennigan and Mello.

Residents of District 1 vote at the Salvation Army Building, 1950 Martin Luther King Drive. District 2 residents vote at Little Cypress Intermediate School, 2300 Allie Payne Road; and District 3 votes at North Early Learning Center, 801 Cordrey Ave.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.