AUBURN — Election officials in the Twin Cities expect voting this year to be at least as heavy as it was during the 2008 presidential election.
The number of requests for absentee ballots is one sign of things to come, Auburn City Clerk Roberta Fogg said Wednesday. The city already has had requests for 1,086 absentee ballots. As of Wednesday morning, voters had sent back 363 of them.
And it’s still early in the process, Fogg said. “We’re just getting started and we know that it’s going to increase.”
A gubernatorial election with no incumbent always brings people out, she said, predicting a “free-for-all.”
In 2008, 4,500 voters — about 30 percent of those registered — used absentee ballots. Eighty percent of registered Auburn voters cast ballots that year.
In Lewiston, the city has issued 1,357 absentee ballots and has received back 596. Officials expect absentee ballot use to equal 2008 numbers. That year, 5,500 voters — about 22 percent of those registered — used absentee ballots. About 68 percent of registered voters in Lewiston cast ballots in the 2008 election.
“We’ve been busy, but we haven’t had our really big rushes,” Assistant City Clerk Jessica Hanscombe said. “We haven’t had the kids come in from Bates College yet, and we haven’t been out to the nursing homes yet.”
State law requires clerks to visit nursing homes and convalescent care centers in their areas to hand out and collect absentee ballots. Lewiston clerks are scheduled to visit six nursing homes over three days next week.
Auburn’s Fogg began going to nursing homes last week and had collected 43 ballots from three care centers so far. She is scheduled to collect ballots at four more care centers through Oct. 21. City councilors also are requiring the city to collect absentee ballots at four senior citizen homes.
Absentee ballots are important things for seniors, said Simone Lauze, 90, of 214 Sabattus St. Lauze said she mailed her ballot in earlier this month.
“My daughter used to come in and get me and take me to vote on Election Day,” she said. “But I’m just getting too old for that. It’s hard for me to walk.”
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- Auburn City Clerk Roberta Fogg, right, gives ballot instructions to Diane Gelinas, center, as Fogg and City Councilor Ray Berube staff an absentee polling place at Barker Mill Arms senior citizen apartments on Wednesday. State law requires clerks to visit nursing homes and convalescent care centers in their areas to hand out and collect absentee ballots.
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- “I wanted a sign and was looking around for one and noticed no one had any, so I made one myself,” Simone Lauze, 90, of Lewiston said Wednesday. A staunch supporter of gubernatorial write-in candidate John Jenkins of Auburn, Lauze had already mailed her absentee ballot.
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