Bellaire to hold runoff elections for City Council Dec. 11

Neither Andréa Ehlers nor Brian Witt received 50% of total votes needed to win the race for Bellaire City Council Position 5 during the Nov. 2 election. The two candidates will instead head to a runoff election Dec. 11, affirmed by the Bellaire City Council during its Nov. 15 meeting.

City Council officially approved an ordinance canvassing the votes and declaring the results of the Nov. 2 election, which saw Ehlers receive 1,837 votes, or 46.8%, compared to her nearest opponent, Witt, who received 1,825 votes, or 46.5%, according to the official tabulated results. The third opponent in the race for Position 5, David Montalvo collected 102 votes, or 2.6%.

The city council later unanimously approved a second ordinance calling the runoff election, which will be administered by Harris County on Dec. 11.

Meanwhile, Winfred Frazier won the race for Position 1 with 56.8% of the vote—2,228 votes—beating out opponent Kevin Newman who took 37.4% of the vote, with 1,466 votes.

In the race for Position No. 3, Ross Gordon came out with the win after taking in 48.6% of the vote—1,908 votes, versus his opponent, Javier Vega, who came away with 47.5%, or 1,862 votes. These results do not require a runoff election because only two candidates ran for the position.

Mayor Andrew Friedberg, meanwhile, ran unopposed for mayor and collected 2,933 votes.

The election results come as the incumbent for Council Member Position No. 1, Neil Verma, was eligible to run, but chose not to do so, while the Council members for Positions 3 and 5—Gus Pappas and Michael Fife—are term limited and are ineligible to run for City Council.

The newly elected council members will take office after being administered the city’s Oath of Office at the first regular city council meeting scheduled for Jan. 3, 2022, according to a Nov. 15 Bellaire council agenda report.