Maine cities and towns — but not all of them — have already begun voting in the 2024 elections, with some municipalities opening elections for in-person absentee ballots as early as August.
According to a list from the Maine Secretary of State’s office, as well as emails obtained by the Maine Wire, the process for beginning voting in Maine’s various cities and towns has begun on a rolling, supposedly random basis.
Under Maine law, in-person absentee voting begins on Oct. 7, and state law requires that election clerks have ballots in hand for 30 days prior to Election Day.
However, according to Deputy Secretary of State Emily Cook, clerks are allowed to distribute ballots earlier if they please.
That means some Maine municipalities will have longer time windows to vote than others, depending on when the Secretary of State delivers ballots to the election clerk.
Secretary of State records show that 104 municipalities in Maine had already accepted in-person absentee ballots, with one town—Bowdoinham—even accepting a ballot on Aug. 5.
Although Cook and the Secretary of State’s office have been clear that voting must begin by Oct. 7, the date when voting can begin is nebulous and depends largely on when ballots are printed and in what order they’re mailed to Maine cities and towns.
It’s not clear who gets to determine which towns receive ballots first and how they make that determination.
Deputy Secretary of State Cook herself seemed confused as to whether voting had already begun in several Maine municipalities.
In a Sept. 26 email, Cook said, “I’m not aware of any municipalities distributing ballots, but they may be.”
According to Secretary of State records, 21 Maine towns were already accepting cast in-person absentee ballots when Cook wrote that email.
Confusion over when voting can officially start is further fueled by the lack of information on the topic available on government websites.
Maine’s Secretary of State website does not publish a list of dates when cities and towns officially start distributing and accepting in-person absentee ballots.
Democracy Works, the left-wing 501(c)3 nonprofit that has partnered with Google and various states to provide election information, states only that starting times vary by municipality.
Many municipal websites do not have clear information — or any information — concerning the earliest date when residents are allowed to begin casting votes.
Cook, in another email obtained by the Maine Wire, said that in-person absentee ballots are distributed “on a rolling basis on a schedule designed to ensure everyone receives ballots in time, taking into account delivery times and schedules and town office hours, just as this office has always done.”
The confusion and lack of statutory guidance as to the earliest date when towns can officially begin collecting votes has created, whether intentionally or not, an opening for partisan manipulation of the voting process.
A Secretary of State could, for example, distribute ballots early to towns with higher populations of registered Democrats and thereby give Democratic voters a longer window in which to cast ballots.
So far, the ad hoc, early, and unpublicized rollout of voting start dates has seen more registered Democrats voting than Republicans or unaffiliated voters.
According to the Secretary of State records, 586 registered Democrats had already submitted their votes as of Oct. 1, while just 329 Republicans and 260 unaffiliated voters had submitted their ballots.
According to the records, the following cities and towns are already accepting in-person absentee ballots:
Acton, Alfred, Andover, Arundel, Auburn, Augusta, Bar Harbor, Belgrade, Belmont, Berwick, Blue Hill, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Bristol, Bucksport, Buxton, Camden, Canaan, Carmel, Casco, Chelsea, Clinton, Corinna, Cornville, Cumberland, Cushing, Deer Isle, Dover-Foxcroft, Durham, Easton, Eddington, Eliot, Ellsworth, Enfield, Fairfield, Falmouth, Farmingdale, Farmington, Fort Fairfield, Gorham, Gray, Greene, Hartland, Holden, Howland, Jay, Kennebunkport, Lamoine, Leeds, Lincolnville, Litchfield, Madawaska Lake, Manchester, Milford, Millinocket, Minot, Monmouth, Morrill, Mount Desert, New Gloucester, New Sharon, Newburgh, Newport, North Berwick, Old Orchard Beach, Old Town, Orland, Oxford, Palermo, Palmyra, Paris, Parsonsfield, Pittston, Readfield, Richmond, Rockland, Saint George, Sanford, Scarborough, Sedgwick, Shapleigh, South Berwick, South Portland, Southwest Harbor, Standish, Steuben, Stockton Springs, Sumner, Tremont, Turner, Vassalboro, Verona Island, Waldoboro, Warren, Waterford, Waterville, West Gardiner, Whitefield, Windsor, Woolwich, and York.
For more information about voting in Maine, you can visit the Maine page of “Democracy Works“.
Unregistered voters may register online here.
To find out if your municipality has begun accepting in-person absentee ballots, the best source of information will be your city or town’s website, or the local clerk’s office.
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