Port Arthur City Hall, public school voting locations open for Election Day on Saturday

Published 12:48 pm Friday, December 18, 2020

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The lengthy election season in Port Arthur will finally come to a close this weekend.

The final two members of the Port Arthur City Council through 2023 will be elected Saturday (Dec. 19).

Either Ingrid West Holmes or Willie “Bae” Lewis Jr. will win the District 1 chair, and either Raymond Scott Jr. or the Rev. Donald Ray Frank Sr. will take at-large Position 8.

Ingrid West Holmes and Willie “Bae” Lewis were the top two vote getters in District 1 during the Nov. 3 general election. (Photos by I.C. Murrell/The News)

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Scott is the current District 1 councilman but has reached term limits. The Position 8 winner will succeed Kaprina Frank, who is term-limited.

The races for city council were scheduled for May, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed them back to November. Holmes and Lewis in District 1, and Scott and Donald Frank in Position 8, were the top two vote-getters in their respective races.

Photos by I.C. Murrell/The News

Cal Jones in District 2, Thomas Kinlaw III in District 3 and Charlotte Moses in Position 7 have been re-elected and sworn into their new terms.

Kenneth Marks in District 4 succeeded Harold Doucet, who decided not to run for re-election.

Mayor Thurman Bartie’s position will be up for election in 2022.

Six polling locations have been made available for Election Day, but unlike during the Nov. 3 general election, these will not be vote centers, which meant registered voters could go to any precinct to fill their ballots instead of just their own.

“The precincts have to be separated because of the districts and who they represent,” said Cheryl Gibbs, the city’s public information officer.

The office of City Secretary Sherri Bellard reminded voters that City Hall, Port Acres Elementary, Abraham Lincoln Middle and Tyrrell Elementary schools will be open for voting along with the other polling locations.

City Hall has otherwise been closed to visitors (except for voting and the oath of office) since March, and Lincoln and Port Acres were among eight Port Arthur Independent School District campuses that were closed for much of this week due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Voting is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. Election workers will be posted in the main lobby, according to Bellard’s office.

“The City Secretary’s office has implemented strict CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines for health and safety at every polling location,” a news release states.

Canvassing is scheduled for Dec. 30.

The polling locations corresponding with their voter precincts:

  • Precincts 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55 and 81: City Hall, 444 Fourth Street
  • Precincts 45, 46, 70, 82, 95, 96, 98 and 105: Port Arthur Public Library, 4615 Ninth Ave.
  • Precincts 33 and 34: Port Acres Elementary, 6301 Pat Ave.
  • Precincts 42, 44, 47, 48, 49, 71, 76, 93 and 102: Tyrrell Elementary, 4401 Ferndale Dr.
  • Precincts 57, 58, 59 and 104: Abraham Lincoln Middle School, 1023 Abe Lincoln Ave.; and
  • Precinct 32: R.L. Gabby Eldridge Community Center, 5262 Gulfway Drive, Sabine Pass.

About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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