ORONO, Maine — With a higher-than-average turnout expected during the coming presidential and state elections, town leaders voted in July to move voting booths to the University of Maine’s New Balance Field House.
“Orono has relocated its polling place to accommodate the volume of people expected,” Town Clerk Shelly Crosby, who is also the registrar of voters, said Wednesday. “We anticipate there is going to be a high turnout.”
The community has 9,247 registered voters, as of Wednesday, and town staffers had already handed out 1,036 absentee ballots, including 55 to residents living out of the country, which are processed by the state, the town clerk said.
Those who are heading to the clerk’s office to register to vote or to pick up or fill out absentee ballots have the state referendums on their minds, she said.
“The thing we’re hearing at the counter is referendum questions,” Crosby said. “They are interested in the direction the state of Maine could go with the referendums and, of course, the presidential race.”
Mainers will decide on five referendums — legalizing recreational marijuana, K-12 funding, gun sale background checks, raising the minimum wage and ranked choice voting — as well as a road transportation bond.
Orono town leaders have discussed moving or consolidating polling places for years. They decided to make the move to the field house back in July for elections that happen when the University of Maine is in session.
“The big concerns we’re hearing from residents [about the move] is parking and they’re concerned about getting to the polls,” Crosby said. “There is an adequate parking lot and we also have the bus system going through that area at least every hour.”
The Community Connector is offering free rides to residents in Bangor, Brewer, Hampden, Old Town, Orono and Veazie on election day.
“We also have a fire lane that is going to be utilized as a temporary area for anyone with a disability so they can pull right up curbside,” the town clerk said.
Voters will be directed to the gym through the entrance to the right of the big “M” that faces the parking lot, not through the front doors that face the mall and library. A large voter registration table will be set up to the left in the gym for registering voters who bring identification and a letter that lists their name and address.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.