The city’s mayoral and City Council Place 1 position races will be decided during the June 25 runoff election after leading candidates in each race failed to secure 50 percent of the vote during the May 7 election.

Jim Gentry and Toby Powell are headed to a runoff in the city of Conroe mayoral race. Gentry garnered 36 percent of the vote with 1,142 votes and Powell earned 33 percent with 1,057 votes. Former candidate Doris Hickman finished third with 985 votes, or 31 percent.

Gentry said he felt the runoff was almost inevitable, especially considering the low turnout for the city election compared to previous years.

“If you remove the votes from April Sound from the total, we had 100 less people [who] voted in this election than voted in the election two years ago,” Gentry said. “We have to contact the people and get them to come out to vote. Conroe is no longer just a small town. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed. It is a very important election.”

Powell said with a third candidate out of the race, the future mayor will need to appeal to the remaining voters during the runoff.

“It is a whole new election. Now, we are going to have 900 votes out there that were cast toward the third party, and it is going to be who can get those votes,” Powell said. “I would like to congratulate [Doris] Hickman for a good showing in the race; she did a great job. Jim [Gentry] and his team did a great job as well.”

City Council Place 1 candidates Duane Ham and Tony Fuller are also headed to a runoff. Opponents Sandra Whisenhunt Walker and Carl White placed third and fourth, respectively, on election night.

Ham earned 1,197 votes, or 39 percent, while Fuller garnered 27 percent with 819 votes. Walker and White earned 17 percent with 524 votes and  505 votes respectively.

Place 2 incumbent Seth Gibson was re-elected to the seat on election night. Gibson earned 1,639 votes, or 58 percent, while opponent Mark Frank garnered 17 percent with 491 votes. Demetrius “Demond” White earned 15 percent with 423 votes, and Cody Lovins earned 10 percent with 297 votes.

Early voting for the runoff election is June 13-17 and 20-12, and election day is June 25.