Updated on Oct. 10, 11:20: Deaton loses primary and admits defeat publicly. 

After the Burlington mayoral primary results came out late Tuesday night, Craig Deaton admitted defeat in a Facebook post.

"I would like to thank everybody that Voted for me.I thought we would do a lot better than we did.The Times News put a end to that.This was my bad and I am very sorry for that. It was one heck of a run, I did what I think GOD wanted me to do, No regrets. Thank`s you guys!!!" Deaton said.

According to Times News, Ian Baltutis, incumbent mayor, took 53 percent of the votes followed by Celo Faucette, mayor pro tem, with 36 percent and Deaton with only 10 percent.

Faucette and Baltutis will continue on to the Burlington mayoral elections held on Nov. 7, 2017. 

Original story from Oct. 9:

Two of Burlington's three mayoral candidates will move on to the final elections after today's primary election. 

The three candidates, Celo Faucette mayor pro tem, Craig Deaton local business owner and Ian Baltutis, current mayor, have varying levels of political experience. 

All three candidates feel strongly about three big issues that affect Burlington —  County crime rates, LGBQIA rights and infrastructure development. 

Each candidate has strong opinions on how to tackle the issues of homelessness and access to transportation. These are two major pillars of infrastructure for the Burlington community.

According to the Allied Churches of Alamance County’s website, 70 people stay in their shelters every night.  

“The way we are headed and going to all these apartments being built and the greenways, parkways, I think that it’s digging a hole that Burlington cannot come out of," Deaton said. "We will be a lesser city rather than a better city."

But while to Deaton infrastructure is setting the community back, Faucette believes it is a goal to strive toward. 

“We have an issue with housing here in the community. Our infrastructure is something that we have to look at," Faucette said. "You can’t get anyone to come to Burlington if you don’t have the infrastructure to do what we need to do."

And in this respect, Faucette and Baltutis are on the same page. 

“When we talk about housing we also have to talk about affordable housing and making sure citizens continue to have access to affordable quality housing and I emphasize quality,” Baltutis said.  

Like infrastructure development, the candidates seem at odds about LGBTQIA rights.

This past weekend was the third year of Alamance Pride. The event which spreads awareness and acceptance for the LGBTQIA community brought out the candidates true feelings

“I don’t have a problem with [the LGBTQIA]," Faucette said. "You have to treat your fellow man, if you have love in your heart you treat your fellow man the same way, no matter what they are."

And while Faucette supports the LGBTQIA community, Deaton certainly has mixed feeling about its awareness and advancement. 

“These people have a right. They need to be protected, they need to be respected for what they think,"  Deaton said. "It is wrong by the bible. It is not in god’s word, but that doesn’t matter.”

In order to protect and respect the LGBTQIA community, during his term as mayor, Baltutis  passed an anti-hate resolution. But he still feels there is more the city can do.  

“There is a lot our city council can do to really set the tone for the city," Baltutis said. "It doesn’t have to be specific ordinances as much as just saying Burlington needs diversity that is a strength of the community."

According to the Department of Public Safety’s most recent annual crime report, for every 100,000 people living in Alamance county almost 3,000 of them commit crimes. All three mayoral candidates aim to lower this number.

“Without police presence in areas, your gangs and thieves and your crime rate will go up. Because the consistency of policemen in an area puts a fear in them, but without that fear they are going to run rapid,” Deaton said.

To Faucette there must be a better compromise.

“It is probably going to take more, but we are going to have to see what happens with what we have now and make some compromises with the way the Police Department is being ran,” Faucette said. 

But Baltutis had the dissenting opinion that the police department is fine the way it is run now. 

“We have a fantastic Police Chief, the council is here to support them, I have my full support behind the police chief in whatever he needs to be successful. And it's really about working at the wider scope,” Baltutis said.

Polls will opened at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. with results expected to be announced by Tuesday night.