HAMPDEN, Maine — Higher than usual voter turnout Tuesday led to near gridlock in the Hampden town office parking lot and the weekend snowstorm knocked out Internet service, leaving town officials facing the prospect of being unable to quickly share voting results with the public.
The shortage of parking spaces at the town’s municipal and public safety offices prompted the U.S. post office next door to post a sign stating that its lot was open to postal customers only.
Election workers said at 3 p.m. that turnout had been strong and steady since the polls opened at 8 a.m. and that it hadn’t let up.
As of Oct. 26, the town had 5,503 registered voters, Town Manager Susan Lessard said. That total, however, does not reflect the new registrations the town has received since then, she said, adding that state law allows voters to register as late as Election Day.
The combination of gubernatorial and congressional elections, state and local referendum questions — and some hotly contested local races for Town Council and the RSU 22 board of directors, drew hundreds to the town office on Election Day.
The town office has been without Internet access since the season’s first major snowstorm struck Sunday, Town Clerk Denise Hodsdon said Tuesday afternoon. That has left the town without the ability to post to its website, send and receive email and make or receive telephone calls via the town’s Time Warner Cable Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, account.
For Hodsdon, the Internet outage also means that she won’t be able to post or email election results after the ballots are counted — a process expected to last late into Tuesday night.
Lessard said that the town is attempting to set up an Internet hotspot so that election results can be shared by the end of the night. She said that the town has been in contact with Time Warner Cable and that the company has indicated that it cannot restore Internet access to affected parts of the community until electrical system repairs are made by Emera Maine.
For the time being, all incoming calls to the town office are being rerouted to Lessard’s cellphone. Town office staffers have been taking turns answering the calls.
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