HAMPDEN, Maine — The town’s Election Day turnout of 3,380 residents — or 63 percent of the town’s active voters — did not break any records.
“Actually, it’s even a little bit less than the 2010 gubernatorial election. We had 3,500 voters that year,” Town Clerk Denise Hodsdon said Wednesday, the third consecutive day without Internet access and phone service for the town’s municipal and public safety personnel.
“We typically have a pretty good showing,” Hodsdon said. “In the 2008 president election, we had 4,400 [voters]. In 2009, it wasn’t even a gubernatorial or presidential election year, there must have been some hot ticket or referendum, because we had 3,400, almost 3,500, that year.
“Then we had in 2010 3,500,” she said. “And then in 2011, it dropped down to 2,500 because it was an off year. And in the presidential in 2012, we had 4,248.”
This year’s election, however, may go down in history as among the more memorable because of the long lines at the polls, first to pick up the local and state ballots and then to feed them into the town’s voting machines, Hodsdon said.
“The lines at the polls yesterday were unusually long. We don’t typically have that,” the clerk said. “We’ve never had the long lines like we had yesterday. Ever.”
So many Hampden residents showed up to vote that a long line remained waiting when the polls closed at 8 p.m.
“Never have I had people in line at the end of the night at 8 o’clock [when the polls closed], like we did,” she said. Those voters were permitted to cast their ballots, which pushed actual voting to roughly another hour.
So why the long lines?
“We had three ballots, so that may have slowed people down in the booth because we had a lot of information on the ballots,” Hodsdon noted.
Another reason for Tuesday’s queues was that more residents cast their ballots in person as opposed to absentee voting, Hodsdon said.
“My absentees were down this year,” she said. “We didn’t do as many as I was anticipating we would do. But after yesterday, I heard a lot of people say that next time they would vote absentee.”
Despite the line, no changes in the town’s voting venue are being contemplated. Hodsdon said that half of the town’s voters used to vote at Reeds Brook Middle School before voting was consolidated at the town office. Today, that would be complicated because schools remain open on Election Day and security measures now in place would make getting in and out of school cumbersome.
What impact, if any, Mayor Carol Duprey’s negative campaign robocalls played in the outcome of this year’s Hampden Town Council races remained unclear on Wednesday.
Both of the incumbent Hampden Town Council candidates who were targeted by negative campaign robocalls made by Duprey were defeated at the polls.
Councilor Ivan McPike lost his campaign for three more years as the District 1 representative on the Hampden Town Council to Stephen Wilde in a 411-319 vote, according to the town’s unofficial voting results released shortly before midnight on Tuesday.
Candidate Philip “Terry” McAvoy defeated Councilor Jean Lawlis in a 399-357 vote for the council’s District 3 seat.
The robocalls that blamed McPike and Lawlis for a 10-percent increase in the town’s property tax rate over the past two years resulted in the council making a 6-1 no confidence vote in the mayor.
Despite being asked to step down, Duprey stood firm and said she was not going anywhere, as she had done nothing wrong.
However, the mayor’s husband, Republican Rep. Brian Duprey, lost his re-election bid for the Maine House of Representatives District 101, which also includes Dixmont and Newburgh, to James Davitt, a Hampden Democrat. Davitt nabbed 1,712 votes to Duprey’s 1,474 in Hampden and 2,005 to 1,926 districtwide.
The Hampden lawmaker also lost his race for the remaining year of an unexpired term on the RSU 22 board of directors to Anthony Liberatore, with Liberatore receiving 1,774 votes to Duprey’s 1,228 votes.
The mayor did not respond to telephone and email messages Wednesday seeking comment on results of those elections.
In other Hampden election results, Dennis Marble took the council’s District 2 seat, with 398 votes to the 345 cast for his opponent, Mark Gray. Incumbent candidate David Ryder won re-election to the District 4 seat with 498 votes to the 213 cast in favor of his opponent, Andrew Colford.
Winners of the five-way race for three three-year seats on the RSU 22 board were Jason Sharpe, with 1,772 votes, Karen Hawkes, with 1,464 votes, and Niles Parker, who had 1,398 votes. Lester French and Kympton Lovley, who also ran, received 1,151 and 993 votes, respectively.
In addition, Sen. Andre Cushing, a Hampden Republican, was re-elected to his District 10 seat with 10,426 votes districtwide to the 4,590 cast for his opponent, Democrat Jaric Fontaine.
All four town charter amendments also were approved by wide margins, including one change that lowered the number of town councilors needed to constitute a quorum from five to four.