Election Warden Bob Hayes directs a voter to an empty voting booth Tuesday at the Auburn Senior Community Center. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
LEWISTON — Voter turnout in the Twin Cities was as expected, at least by midday Tuesday, as both cities elected officials and decided the contentious Question 1 statewide power line referendum.
Just after noon Tuesday, Auburn City Clerk Sue Clements-Dallaire said the balloting had been steady, with lots of activity in the morning hours.
By 6 p.m., Auburn had reported a turnout of 3,634, outpacing the 3,383 total ballots cast in 2019, the previous municipal election. Clements-Dallaire said she’d heard from multiple voters that Question 1 brought them out.
In 2019, the turnout represented 19% of eligible voters, representing a sharp decline from 2017, which featured the Lewiston-Auburn merger question, driving a 48% turnout.
In Lewiston, City Clerk Kathy Montejo had similar comments, reporting steady turnout across polling locations.
Montello School, the Ward 2 polling location, reported a tally of 621 votes by 3:30 p.m. Montello saw a total of 983 voters in 2019.
About 6,000 people voted in Lewiston in 2019, a turnout of 22%.
Montejo said Question 1 could be driving some of the turnout. A Canadian television news crew was conducting exit polling in Lewiston on Tuesday, she said.
Lewiston has been a central piece of the “No on 1” campaign because of the city’s support for the New England Clean Energy Connect project.
Earlier Tuesday, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told Maine Public that the turnout so far was higher than previous referendum-only elections, including a record number of absentee ballots cast for a similar election.
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