Early voting underway for Aurora mayoral primary election with 5 candidates in race

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- Early voting began in Aurora on January 16, but so far, turnout for the mayoral primary race has been exceptionally low.

Five candidates are battling it out to make it into the final two. Among them is incumbent Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

As Aurora residents get ready to elect a mayor, early voting is underway. And yet, with less than one week to go before Election Day, Kane County's satellite office in downtown Aurora remains mostly quiet.

Patricia Dahn was one of around 200 voters that have cast ballots there so far.

"Our budget is of main concern," Dahm said. "Our safety is of great concern."

Illinois' second largest city, Aurora, is divided between Kane, DuPage, Will, and Kendall counties. Kane County Clerk John Cunningham said so far, the mail-in vote is poised to play a decisive vote come Tuesday.

"We had 11% four years ago. And four years before that it was 17%. So it was not a large turnout," Cunningham said.

Five candidates, including Mayor Irvin, are on the ballot.

Alderman-at-large John Laesch is a Navy veteran and former school board member who has run for mayor before. Wednesday morning, he was knocking on doors, keenly cognizant that every vote counts.

"We're getting a great response at the doors," Laesch said. "You can see we are showing people where they can early vote. I think we're the only campaign that's doing that. So I think we have an advantage in the turnout race."

Then there is Alderman Ted Mesiacos. The son of Greek immigrants, Mesiacos is a small business owner and architect in addition to being alderman. He's now looking to step up.

"We have in our community an affordability crisis," Mesiacos said. "Maybe not in every neighborhood, but in a majority of our neighborhoods. Right now, we're taxing our community twice in the past two years, 4.87% coming up here in April."

The two candidates are looking to beat incumbent Mayor Irvin, and so are two other candidates, former Alderman Judd Lofchie and Aurora Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president Karina Garcia.

SEE ALSO | Judge dismisses Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard's lawsuit against village trustees

In office since 2017, Irvin points to Aurora's growing downtown as one reason why he deserves a third term.

"Now they're full will market rate apartments. They're full with retail and commercial," Irvin said. "Every building in the core of our downtown that was empty when I took office, and they were many, they are all full."

ABC7 reached out to both the Lofchie and Garcia campaigns, but did not hear back. The top-two vote getters in Tuesday's primary will move on to the consolidated election on April 1.