As political campaigns enter the final stretch before Election Day, Midcoast towns are gearing up for another heavy turnout of absentee voters.
Fearing COVID-19 exposure before vaccines were widely available, 77 percent of Freeport voters turned in absentee ballots in November 2020, according to Town Clerk Christine Wolfe, up from just 41 percent in 2016. While Wolfe and other local town clerks expect some of those voters to return to the polls on Nov. 8, they anticipate others will continue to cast their ballots early.
“For the voter, absentee voting is incredibly convenient,” Wolfe said. “You never have to get in your car. You don’t have to stand in line at the polls. You don’t have to fear about COVID exposure.”
Voters can request ballots over the phone or in person at their local Town Clerk’s Office or online through the State of Maine. They should mail their completed ballots to the Clerk’s Office or place them in a secure drop box located outside the office. Ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. on election day.
Brunswick residents already can vote in person at the Town Clerk’s Office, an option that will be available to Freeport and Bath voters next week.
While the absentee voting system can make it easier to cast ballots, it can also slow the process of counting them, according to Brunswick Town Clerk Fran Smith. For every resident who mails in their ballot, election workers must carry out a system of checks and double-checks to make sure that every vote is paired with exactly one application and stored securely in sealed envelopes, tamper-proof boxes and locked vaults.
A team of about 70 workers will helps collect and manage ballots cast on Nov. 8 in Brunswick, but only five to 15 are on hand to process early votes beginning a week prior to Election Day. Still, the effort is worth it for Smith and her team.
“It’s more work for us, but we want to be here for the voters,” she said. “We don’t care how they vote as long as they vote.”
Though they may cause long hours for election workers, the absentee voting system’s built-in checks and balances should reassure those worried about the prospect of voter fraud, according to Bath Town Clerk Darci Wheeler.
“I encourage a lot of my residents that do have a question, ‘Come work for me,’” she said. “’Come spend a day at the polls and see how everything is done, and that would ease your mind a hundred percent.’”
While there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Maine, unfounded claims of fraud from politicians and media personalities have created a culture of mistrust around elections that can stretch to the Midcoast, Wolfe said.
“We feel it, we hear it, we try to subside it,” she said. “Personally, as a town clerk, I don’t know how to subside everyone’s fear when they turn on the national news and it’s there stirring the pot.”
By making themselves available to answer questions about the absentee process, local clerks hope to do their best to reassure voters of the integrity of their staffs and the elections they run.
“This isn’t a political office,” Smith said. “We take an oath to do our job and to follow the rules and regulations of the laws of the state of Maine. We take that very seriously.”
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