Denton Mayor Perry McNeill and rival Mark Burroughs face an uphill battle to convince voters to return to the polls for the June 14 runoff election, observers say.

Many factors — from summer vacations to election fatigue — could converge to depress turnout in the mayoral race. And the winner still could face a potential ouster as part of a pending lawsuit over term limits.

Regardless, both candidates pledged to campaign hard over the next month.

Mark Burroughs

Mark Burroughs

“That’s what it’s all about for me, trying to keep that energy there that carried me to the lead. I think that it can be done. It’s just not easy because of the time of year.”

“That’s what it’s all about for me, trying to keep that energy there that carried me to the lead,” said Burroughs, the top vote-getter in Saturday’s four-man race, with nearly 49 percent. “I think that it can be done. It’s just not easy because of the time of year.”

McNeill, who’s seeking a second term, agreed that motivating supporters would be key.

“You’ve got to get them excited so they come back and vote,” said McNeill, 72, a retired professor and engineer. “A lot of people … just didn’t show up to vote, so we’ve got to get them fired up.”

Easier said than done.

“Nobody knows the frustration [of a runoff election] unless you’ve been through it,” said council member Charlye Heggins, who won Denton’s last municipal runoff, in 2005. “You have to almost work double time in order to convince the constituents to go back and vote for you.”

Photographer Walter Eagleton, who lost to Heggins in the 2005 runoff, agreed.

“I think, for the candidate, it requires more face-to-face meetings with people even than the first time around,” he said.

Perry McNeill

Perry McNeill

“You’ve got to get them excited so they come back and vote. A lot of people … just didn’t show up to vote, so we’ve got to get them fired up.”

Heggins increased her take of the votes from 44.5 percent in the six-person regular election to nearly 60 percent in the runoff. But a lead in the initial vote doesn’t always translate into runoff success.

Last month, civil attorney Doug Robison erased a 26-percentage-point shortfall from the March Republican primary to snatch the 393rd District Court judgeship nomination from lawyer Steve Burgess.

“I think that it [an initial lead] is more cause for concern, really,” Eagleton said. “The people who voted for the second-place person might have more of a fervor to go back to the polls than the people who voted for the first-place person, who might have a tendency to think that everything’s OK, that it’s in the bag.”

Burroughs, 50, a lawyer, said complacency is a threat in any runoff. This time, the risk of voter fatigue is high after the March primary, the primary runoff and Saturday’s city election, he said.

“There’s a tendency for some folks to think they’ve done their duty” by voting once, he said. “So the real challenge is getting those folks who supported you to make a second trip out a month later, which is really the fourth election in the space of a few months.”

Burroughs and McNeill said they planned to continue spending money on signs, mailers or other campaign advertisements. But both reported a dearth of funds in their latest campaign finance filings and have loaned their campaigns thousands of dollars to keep up.

As of May 2, Burroughs had spent about $45,000 on the race, about $21,000 more than he’d collected in donations. McNeill had spent about $16,600, compared with roughly $11,500 in donations. Burroughs reported $15,500 in outstanding loans; McNeill, $15,000.

Burroughs said the spending was needed to overcome three challengers, including an incumbent, and fight attack ads funded by an independent group led by local activist Bob Clifton.

“Yes, that has been expensive,” Burroughs said. “But if it’s worth doing it all, it’s worth doing it right.”

Heggins credited her success in the 2005 runoff, in part, to rival Clifton, who endorsed her after his third-place finish. But so far, McNeill and Burroughs haven’t been so fortunate.

Businessman Justin Bell and college student Darac Favre, the third- and fourth-place finishers in Saturday’s mayoral race, said Monday they had not decided whether to endorse anyone in the runoff. They also declined to speculate on whom their supporters would back.

Bell said he’s focused on the lawsuit over term limits, which could affect the eligibility of McNeill, Burroughs and at-large City Council member-elect Pete Kamp.

“I don’t hope that any of the candidates get invalidated retroactively,” Bell said. “My hope is that we clarify the law.”

Bell and four other Denton residents, including Clifton and Kamp’s opponent in Saturday’s election, Mike Sutton, sued the city secretary in April to disqualify the trio for alleged term-limit violations.

Visiting District Judge David Evans allowed them to remain on the ballot but did not dismiss the suit. Future hearings could address how to interpret the term-limits provision of the city charter, the judge said.

The charter prevents council members from being elected to more than three consecutive two-year terms. But city attorneys say term limits do not carry over to council members who run for a different seat, including mayor, or sit out a term.

McNeill, Burroughs and Kamp say they are qualified to serve based on that interpretation of the charter, which city attorneys have long upheld. McNeill and Kamp won election to more than three straight terms by switching seats. Burroughs waited four years after his third council term ended before running for mayor.

But officeholders still could be disqualified if a judge ruled that the city has been misinterpreting the charter, said Scott Haywood, a spokesman for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office.

“Essentially, you would have a situation where an ineligible candidate won the election,” Hay­wood said. “Depending on what the judge orders, it would most likely create a vacancy because of ineligibility.”

McNeill and Burroughs said they doubted it would come to that.

“It takes a really strong opinion from the court to unseat a candidate that’s been elected by the people,” McNeill said.

Early voting begins June 2.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .