Police report smooth Election Day

BANGOR – The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI were on the lookout for voter fraud.

A cadre of attorneys throughout the state stood ready to protect Maine residents’ right to vote.

Bangor police were monitoring the polls for any problems, making use of the department’s Special Enforcement Team.

But as the polls closed and the ballot counting began Tuesday night, the lawyers agreed with election officials: Things had gone very smoothly.

James McCarthy, assistant U.S. attorney, was appointed last week by U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby to accept complaints of voter fraud or discrimination at the polls.

“This office has had no allegations of voter fraud so far tonight,” he said Tuesday a few minutes before the polls closed at 8 p.m.

McCarthy said that he had taken more calls from the media than he had from voters. The three concerns reported to his office were:

. A police officer was needed to direct traffic at a polling place in Fairfield because of the construction and paving equipment outside the building.

. The hour-long wait to vote in Millinocket was too long.

. The first bake sale ever was being held at the polling place in Topsfield.

McCarthy said that he had directed callers to their appropriate town officials in the first two instances and to the Secretary of State’s Office to determine whether it was legal to have a bake sale at a polling place.

Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar said Tuesday that bake sales at polling sites are allowed as long as they aren’t in support of candidates or political parties.

About 250 attorneys recruited by the Maine Democratic Party volunteered to observe the voter registration process and ensure that everyone who went to the polls was allowed to cast a ballot.

Frank McGuire, a Bangor attorney who lives in Brewer, spent most of the day in Brewer Auditorium, the polling place for all city residents.

“What I’ve been seeing is a well-run, orderly process,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “The city clerk and warden all seem to be moving people through efficiently and not turning people away, which is as it should be.”

Bangor attorney Michael Guare spent the day at Bangor City Hall, where he said Tuesday that he had kept a few people who were leaving when they saw the sign stating that they were required to show identification to register to vote.

People can affirm that the information is correct on the voter registration card and vote a challenged ballot, he said.

“It’s going very smoothly,” Guare observed.

Jesse Derris, a spokesman for Democratic candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s campaign in Maine, early Tuesday night agreed that the “process is going very well this year.”

Republican activist Harrison Clark of Bangor didn’t challenge voter registrations at Bangor City Hall as he has in recent elections. By midafternoon Tuesday, he had challenged only one absentee ballot, when clerks accepted a ballot from an address different from the one where the voter was registered.

“Nothing out of the ordinary has been reported,” Dunbar said.

In Bangor, Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno said that officers were asked to visit all of the polling places, and day and evening crews were asked to increase their patrols around polling areas.

Shortly before 6 p.m., with two hours left in the election, Sgt. Bob Bishop, who heads the Special Enforcement Team in Bangor, reported that there were no problems, that people were well-mannered and the process was orderly wherever they went.

News reporter Doug Kesseli contributed to this report.