Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque talks with Charlie Walton on Tuesday as Walton arrives at the Auburn Senior Community Center to vote. The two-term mayor ran unopposed for his third term. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
AUBURN — Mayor Jason Levesque was elected to serve a third consecutive term Tuesday after running unopposed.
Levesque received 4,242 votes, with the tally also showing 790 write-in votes and 934 blank votes. The results were posted at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday.
Wednesday morning, Levesque said he was looking forward to serving with a new City Council, which will feature a mix of newcomers and incumbents.
“It was reassuring going into Election Day knowing that my policy objectives and highly visible results led to me being unopposed,” he said. “I look forward to working with the new council, to continue our work on making it more enjoyable to live, work and do business in Auburn.”
According to City Clerk Sue Clements-Dallaire, state law does not require write-in votes to be counted unless they “exceed the number of votes in that count for a candidate whose name appears on the ballot.” Because Levesque received over 4,000 votes and the number of write-ins was 790, Auburn did not have to tally them for specific write-in names, she said.
However, she said, the large majority of the write-in votes were for current Ward 1 Councilor Holly Lasagna. Lasagna did not run for reelection to her council seat, and will be replaced by Rick Whiting. The largest number of write-in votes came in Wards 1 and 2, which tallied 335.
In the past year, Levesque has focused heavily on housing growth, with an effort to peel away what he has argued are restrictive zoning rules that have led to the current housing crisis. This week, the council also approved changes to the city’s permit fee structure, which is meant to streamline the permitting process and encourage new projects.
Auburn’s voter turnout Tuesday was 5,983, a 36% turnout compared to 19% in 2019.
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