Aurora election night live 2018: Mrakas unseats Dawe in mayoral race

Harold Kim earns most votes among councillor candidates, will serve as deputy mayor

Yorkregion.com
October 23, 2018
Teresa Latchford

Tom Mrakas has traded his councillor seat for the chain of office.

Following his first term as an Aurora councillor, Mrakas defeated two-term mayor Geoff Dawe.

“I’m very proud of my campaign and all of the volunteers who worked so hard to support me,” Mrakas said. “I’m proud of what I have accomplished over the last four years and look forward to continuing to get things done.”

Candidates, supporters and members of the general public began to trickle into town hall around 7:30 p.m., anxious to see the leaderboard reveal who would represent them for the next four years.

Mrakas had the lead right off the bat, with one of 34 polls reporting, and maintained his lead throughout, with a total of 4,781 votes at the end. Dawe got 3,533 votes; Chris Ballard, 2,475; and John Abel, 1,684.

Residents were only able to vote for six councillors this time around, compared to eight in the previous municipal election.

The unofficial results show incumbent Harold Kim will sit next to the mayor as deputy mayor. Wendy Gaertner, Sandra Humfryes and Michael Thompson were all re-elected.

This will be Rachel Gilliland’s first time at the council table, and John Gallo is returning after one term away.

As for the school trustee positions, Bob McRoberts will represent Aurora-King with York Region District School Board and Elizabeth Crowe will keep her seat with York Catholic District School Board.

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