Day of Decision Maine candidates, polling places ready for historic Election Day

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BANGOR – One day before the 2008 election, Maine candidates made their final appeals to voters while communities across the state prepared for perhaps the busiest and most anticipated Election Day in history.

“Aside from dealing with a heavy volume [of voters], we’re ready,” Bangor City Clerk Patti Dubois said Monday afternoon.

Hampden Town Clerk Denise Hodsdon barely had time to talk Monday as she scurried around the town office dealing with last-minute details.

“I’m not worried about tomorrow, though,” she said. “We expect everything to go smoothly.”

A historic presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, a high-profile U.S. Senate contest, two U.S. House races and two citizen-driven referendum questions have combined to energize Maine voters in an unprecedented fashion.

By Monday morning, nearly 200,000 Mainers, or about 20 percent of registered voters, already had submitted absentee ballots, eclipsing the record of about 166,000 set in 2004. More than 9,000 of those absentee ballots came from Bangor, or about 40 percent of the city’s registered voters, according to Dubois. In Hampden, 1,276 of the town’s 5,735 registered voters had turned in absentee ballots.

“It doesn’t surprise us. We expected to see an uptick in absentee voting, and I’m sure that will only continue in future elections,” Secretary of State spokesman Don Cookson said.

Even with the high number of absentee ballots, Cookson said, most polling places in Maine are likely to be hectic today, and he urged patience.

“We’re hopeful that people won’t become frustrated and leave,” he said. “But even if you do wait in line for an hour, that would be the maximum. Some states have it much worse.”

As of Oct. 29, 942,825 Mainers were registered to vote, but because voters can register up to and including Election Day, the total is likely to reach 1 million. Of this total so far, 310,950 (33 percent) are Democrats, 258,147 (27 percent) are Republicans and 346,374 (37 percent) are unenrolled, according to the most recent statistics from the Maine Secretary of State’s Office.

In addition to absentee balloting, Maine could set other voting records today. Seventy-four percent of registered voters cast ballots in 2004, but all indicators suggest that will be eclipsed, and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap predicted turnout to top 80 percent.

Bangor, which typically ranks among the highest in voter turnout, could see 90 percent or more, said Dubois. That would surpass the record of 89 percent in 2004.

With all the excitement, election officials are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst just to be safe.

“The potential always exists for problems, but we don’t expect any,” Cookson said. “We have a lot of veteran clerks and election officials who can recognized things that might create bottlenecks.”

As municipalities prepared polling locations on Monday, candidates from U.S. Senate and House races to local town council contests spent their last full day of campaigning reaching out to voters.

Susan Collins embarked from her Bangor headquarters early Monday morning for a daylong tour of Aroostook County.

The Republican senator, who is leading opponent Tom Allen in most polls, will make her way back south today, stopping in Bangor to vote before ending up in Portland for an election night party. Between last Thursday and today, the Collins campaign estimated that her bus would log more than 1,000 miles across Maine.

“It’s been a lot of fun getting to see people, especially in their hometowns,” she said before boarding her bus in Bangor.

Allen, meanwhile, also had an aggressive schedule. The outgoing congressman and his wife made a stop at Democratic headquarters in Bangor late Monday to help call potential voters.

“We don’t know what the outcome will be,” Allen said. “This has been an exciting campaign and we hope to pull it out.”

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, the Democratic incumbent in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, will log hundreds of miles by the end of today, according to spokesperson Monica Castellanos. Most polls show Michaud with a sizable lead over Republican challenger John Frary, who has several radio appearances today, according to his campaign.

In the 1st Congressional District, Democrat Chellie Pingree spent Monday in the midcoast campaigning in Bath, Rockland and Brunswick with her two daughters. Pingree already has cast her ballot in her hometown of North Haven.

Her Republican challenger, Charlie Summers, made stops in Biddeford, Sanford and Falmouth on Monday. Summers will vote this morning in Scarborough. After casting his ballot, said his spokeswoman, Tracy Patterson, he will be “shaking hands wherever there are voters.”

Underlying all the preparation by candidates and municipalities is an unprecedented voter mobilization effort from both major parties, which hope the buzz around the presidential race trickles down.

The Maine Democratic Party is banking on a Get Out The Vote effort that will feature more than 3,200 volunteers working out of 74 staging locations.

“We are dwarfing any Get Out the Vote effort that’s been done in Maine before,” said Peter Chandler, campaign director for the Maine Democratic Party. “In the past few days we’ve more than doubled the size of our operation, from 34 to 74 offices, and we believe it’s going to pay off on Election Day.”

Jen Webber, Maine GOP spokesperson, said volunteers and staffers will continue doing what they already have been doing for weeks and months to help elect Republican candidates.

“We’ve got people phone-banking, going door-to-door in some communities, we’re coordinating rides,” she said. “Anything we can do to make sure people get out and vote.”

To help Election Day run more smoothly, more than 70 communities, including Bangor, were allowed to begin processing absentee ballots on Monday.

Should any legal issues arise, James McCarthy and David Joyce, both Assistant U.S. attorneys, were assigned Monday to oversee complaints of election fraud and voter rights abuse in Bangor and Portland, respectively. Anyone with complaints may contact McCarthy at 845-0373 or Joyce at 771-3254.

erussell@bangordailynews.net

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BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRE

U.S. Rep. and Senate candidate Tom Allen stopped at the Maine Democratic Party headquarters in Bangor on Monday. Allen and his wife, Diana, talked to volunteers and participated in the phone banking.

Maine candidates, polling places ready for historic Election Day