Early voting begins city, school elections

Most cities and school districts in Orange County were able to cancel their May 4 elections because of no contested races, but the races and issues on ballots are drawing out voters.

The current election is not the same as the May 28 Republican primary run-off for state representative.

As of Tuesday evening, the second day of early voting, A total of 326 people in the county voted in person, with another 238 from mail-in ballots for a total of 564.

The votes casts at the four early polling sites are 79 for the Orange Public Library, 126 for the OC Airport, 45 for the OC Expo Center, and 76 for the Raymond Gould Community Center in Vidor. Any registered county voter may cast a ballot at any site, though they will be allowed to vote only for the specific election that matches their home address.

Early voting will continue from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. this week through Friday, April 26. It will continue from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, April 29, and Tuesday, April 30. The election is Saturday, May 4.

Local ballots are for the mayor of Bridge City, with incumbent David Rutledge facing challenger Carl Harbert, a former city councilor.

Also, the West Orange-Cove CISD is having a bond election to issue $72 million worth. The school district reports the new bonds will not cause property taxes to go up. The district in recent years has had a large increase in industrial and commercial development.

The main project for the bonds will be to build a new early learning center to replace North ELC on Cordrey Avenue in Orange, built in 1964. The district has bought acreage behind the West Orange-Stark Elementary School on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Pinehurst as the place for the new school.

The Orange County Drainage District is having contested races for the board of directors. The incumbent for Precinct 2, Larry Ancelot, is facing Richard Capaldi. Incumbent James Scales for Precinct 3 is being challenged by Seth Mize.

The Vidor school board has Position 2 open with three candidates, Paul Davis, Matthew DeWitt, and Carrie Vincent.

In addition, the Orange County Emergency Services District 1, which provides the city of Vidor and the Vidor area with fire and rescue service, is asking voters to approve a sales tax of up to 1. 5 percent. The county has four emergency services special district and only District 3 has the sales tax, which is used for equipment, personnel, and general expenses.

The cities of West Orange, Pinehurst, Orange, and Vidor were able to cancel elections because of no contested council races. The WO-C school board election was also canceled with no challengers, as was the Little Cypress-Mauriceville school board election. The Orangefield school board has elections in November.

Also, the Orange County Port and Navigation District had no challengers in its board race.