BANGOR, Maine — The online voting system set up so utility workers can cast ballots while they continue restoring power to areas affected by the weekend snowstorm is being slowed down by high demand, according to a state official.
Gov. Paul LePage signed a proclamation Tuesday morning making it easier for utility workers who are registered Maine voters but are away from home and unable to get to the polls to cast ballots remotely, the same way members of the military do — by emailing scanned, completed ballots.
Hundreds of utility workers around the state attempted to use the system Tuesday, according to Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, more than could easily be processed before the polls close at 8 p.m.
“The system is not designed to be used this way at this volume,” Dunlap said just before 7 p.m. via telephone. “I’ve got a dozen people doing nothing but working on this. It’s a race against the clock.”
Workers must fill out an online application for an absentee ballot. The state emails them a ballot which they must print out, fill out, scan and send electronically back to the state. Ballots that are not received by 8 p.m. won’t be counted, Dunlap said.
Dunlap said he did not have an exact number of workers who had applied, but said it could be as many as several hundred.
“Voting is our civic responsibility and right,” LePage, whose name is on the ballot, said in a press release. “This proclamation ensures that hard-working Mainers called away from home to restore power to our citizens are able to remain on the job and still have an opportunity to vote.”
Power company employees should go to maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/AbsenteeBallot/index.pl, where they will see a link for “Utility Workers,” according to a press release issued by Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap’s office.
“Utility workers who are working outside of their hometowns can make a request via this link, and they will be given a login and password to print their ballot from the site, mark it, scan it and return it by email as a PDF or JPEG attachment,” the release said. “The voter will need to have a computer, printer and scanner available to cast their ballot in this manner. These ballots will be counted at the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions in Augusta.”
Susan Faloon, spokeswoman for Emera Maine, said supervisors are working with crews, who do not have computers and printers in their trucks, to make sure employees have the opportunity to vote.
Dunlap said “a couple of thousand” ballots are typically cast remotely during presidential and gubernatorial races.
The secretary of state, who is spending the day visiting multiple polling places around the state, said Monday that turnout during a gubernatorial election is usually between 50 and 55 percent of registered voters.
“The interest [is] in the governor’s race,” Dunlap said. “That will push turnout up probably past 55 percent statewide.”
He said weather is always a factor in how many people turn out to vote.
Sunday’s storm and the lingering power outages forced at least five polling places across the state to relocate, according to information posted on the secretary of state’s website. Voters in Mount Desert, Brooklin, Camden, Swans Island and Rockland have been redirected to local buildings that have power.
Voters at the Cross Insurance Center, Bangor’s only polling place, were greeted by more than a dozen candidates during the first hour of voting Tuesday.
“It’s like the reception line at a wedding,” one voter said.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler arrived for a short time to greet voters. Legislative and Bangor City Council candidates shook hands with voters and introduced themselves.
State law prohibits candidates from asking people entering polling centers to vote for them or anyone else.
Later Tuesday morning, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican candidate, arrived at the Cross Center to cast her ballot.
Collins, who traveled nearly 9,000 miles across the state and visited 102 different communities on her campaign bus , also was planning on making stops in Lewiston and Portland after a lunch in Bangor. Collins’ day started with a breakfast in her native Caribou.
“I feel great,” Collins said outside the Cross Center. “Until the polls close, I’m still greeting voters and thanking my supporters and campaigning until the very last vote.”
A Bangor police officer helped direct traffic in and out of the Buck Street entrance to the parking lot in the morning and a steady stream of Queen City residents entered the building to vote.
City Clerk Lisa Goodwin predicted that between 11,000 and 12,000 people would cast ballots in Bangor, about the same number who voted during the last gubernatorial election.
“During a presidential election, 15,000 people will vote,” she said.
When the polls opened Tuesday, 5,300 people already had cast their votes via absentee ballot, Goodwin said.
Goodwin said moving the voting site from the ballroom of the Cross Insurance Center to the arena section of the building was working well — a move that has been in the works to ease access to the polling area for elderly and disabled Bangor voters.
“This is the first time we’ve used the arena area for voting,” she said. “Getting to the ballroom from the parking lot was just too far to walk.”
The ballroom is on the Buck Street side of the building facing Main Street.
The polls in the Queen City opened at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
BDN writer Matthew Stone and Metro Editor Mike Dowd contributed to this report.
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