Cities and towns across Maine will host municipal elections Tuesday.
Residents statewide will have the chance to vote on local school budget proposals, and some municipalities will hold votes on other local referendums and on officials to oversee municipal and school operations. There are no statewide races or ballot questions.
In Portland, residents will vote on Question A, a divisive rent control proposal that seeks to roll back the city’s 5% cap on rent increases for new tenants. If passed, the referendum would allow landlords to raise rents as much as they want after tenants voluntarily leave an apartment and it goes back on the market.
But before this referendum has even been voted on, two other rent control referendums have been introduced that could head to city ballots this fall.
The first would exempt “small landlords” (defined as owning nine or fewer rental units in the city) from having to comply with the city’s rent control ordinance. The second would curtail landlords’ ability to evict long-term tenants to convert apartments to short-term rental units, ban converting affordable housing units to short-term rentals, and mandate that 97.5% of Portland units house long-term tenants.
An affidavit outlining the proposals was filed with the city on June 5 and each will need 1,500 signatures to get on the ballot. To make it in time for the November election, those signatures must be handed in by June 22, city officials said Monday.
Residents of State House District 45, which includes Bremen, Friendship, Waldoboro, Washington and Louds Island Township, will vote in a special election to fill the vacancy created by former Rep. Clinton Collamore’s resignation. Candidates include Wendy Pieh, D-Bremen, and Abden S. Simmons, R-Waldoboro.
Collamore resigned in February after being indicted on 20 counts including aggravated forgery, 11 counts of unsworn falsification and one count of violating the Maine Clean Election Act. Collamore pleaded not guilty to the charges and apologized for what he said were the mistakes of an inexperienced candidate.
Polling locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., although some communities open polling places earlier. For information on specific municipalities, including polling locations, visit the Maine Voter Information Lookup Service. Sample ballots also can be found on municipal websites.
Results of Greater Portland elections will be posted at pressherald.com as they become available Tuesday evening.
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