RUMFORD – As the throng of prospective moose hunters began to file into the Mountain Valley High School Auditorium on Thursday, Mark Ostermann sidled up to Wally Devoe and began the evening’s festivities … not that anyone noticed.

“Do you want to push the ‘Enter’ button?” asked Ostermann, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife’s programmer/analyst.

Devoe, the technology coordinator for SAD 43, smiled and eagerly stepped up to the computer, pushed the button, and set the yearly moose-permit lottery in motion.

There is no hopper nor actual applications in sight at the lottery. Names aren’t even really drawn – numbers are. Receive a low enough number and you get to hunt moose come September or October. Get a high number … and wait until next year … again.

Devoe chuckled when reminded that every potential hunter in Rumford and Mexico could now blame the man who pushed the button if their names weren’t drawn.

“They can only complain if I get mine [and they don’t get theirs],” Devoe said with a laugh.

Fifteen minutes later, William M. Sullivan Jr. of Presque Isle was the first of 2,610 in-state winners announced.

Shortly after that, Rocky Fuller of Albion heard his name read … after 25 years of entering the lottery in vain. Over those 25 years, Fuller’s father had earned the right to hunt twice, but Fuller himself had yet to hunt.

Fuller quickly exited the auditorium and ran into the parking lot to call his father with the news.

“Like usual, he’s not home,” Fuller said with a laugh.

“Nothing like [the feeling],” Fuller said. “Now I’m ready to go right now.”

A crowd of a couple hundred potential hunters gathered in Rumford to hear the names of the successful in-state applicants read aloud. In all, 2,895 of the 68,845 applicants were successful Thursday night. The applicant breakdown: 2,610 permits were allotted among 49,268 Maine residents (5.3 percent of applicants were drawn) and 285 permits were allotted to the winners among 19,577 nonresident hunters (1.5 percent).

This year 4,910 fewer potential hunters applied for the lottery, meaning registrants were more likely – barely – to have their names drawn. In 2004, 4.9 percent of in-state applicants received their moose permits.

Five additional permits were auctioned off earlier this year in a sealed-bid auction to benefit youth conservation scholarships in Maine. That auction raised $53,032, with the winning bids ranging from $10,880 to $10,150.

According to Roland “Danny” Martin, the commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, the yearly lottery has proven increasingly popular each year.

“They tell me that there were folks already in here at 4 o’clock, so it’s become quite an event and people look forward to this,” Martin said.

In an effort to keep the program flowing smoothly and speed up the process, Martin said a few changes were made this year.

“We’re going to try to expedite this a little bit, and we’ll have the announcers all lined up in a little bullpen [backstage],” he said.

Competition from towns eager to host the event has increased every year, and Martin said the DIF&W has already committed to returning the lottery to Cumberland County next year.

Maine’s modern moose hunt began in 1980 as an experimental season and, after a year’s hiatus, was created as an annual season beginning in 1982.

Before 1999, the moose-permit lottery was held in Augusta each year. Since then, the lottery has been held at sites across the state. Previous lotteries have been held in Presque Isle, Old Town, Scarborough, Bucksport, Wiscasset and Millinocket.

In-state hunters paid from $8 (for one lottery chance) to $23 (for six chances) to enter this year’s lottery. Nonresident hunters paid $13 for one chance, $23 for three, $33 for six and $53 for 10. Out-of-state hunters are allowed to buy as many chances as they like at an additional cost of $53 for every 10 lottery chances, while Mainers can’t exceed the six-chance option.

If drawn, resident hunters must pay a $53 fee to obtain their permit. Nonresident permits cost $478.

Moose hunters in Maine typically enjoy a high success rate of around 80 percent, and lucky hunters are assigned one of 19 Wildlife Management Districts in which to hunt, as well as one of two available sessions in the split-season hunt.

Maine’s moose season was split into two sessions in 2001, and this year’s hunters will hunt from either Sept. 26-Oct. 1 or from Oct. 10-15. Of those hunters, 1,120 will earn the right to hunt during the September session, while another 1,775 will head into the woods during the second session.

According to state wildlife biologists, the state’s moose population is about 29,000.