In-person turnout light in today's primary election - Press Herald

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Election clerk Alicia Harding, 79, sits outside Merrill Auditorium at Portland City Hall and reads “The Best of Science and Nature Writing” while waiting for voters. Michele McDonald/Staff Photographer

Early turnout was light Tuesday as voters headed to the polls to cast ballots in a primary election that was delayed by a month because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A big part of the reason for the low turnout: a record number of early voting and absentee ballots. More than 190,000 voters requested absentee ballots in Maine, a move encouraged by state and local election officials, as well as health experts, to minimize crowd gathering at polling stations and help avoid spreading of the highly contagious coronavirus.

Democrats statewide are deciding a three-way race among Maine Speaker of the House Sara Gideon, attorney Bre Kidman of Saco, and lobbyist and progressive activist Betsy Sweet, one of whom will take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

Republicans in the state’s 2nd Congressional District are choosing among three potential challengers to incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden — former state Sen. Eric Brakey, former state Rep. Dale Crafts, and Adrienne Bennett, who served as press secretary for former Gov. Paul LePage.

Voters are also deciding a pair of state bond questions for highway construction and broadband expansion, while most local school districts also have their annual budgets on the ballot for voter ratification.

In Portland, 17,683 people had voted by absentee ballot by late morning. That is already more than the total number of people who voted in Portland in the 2018 primary election, which was 15,447.

The Portland Exposition Building is being used an a temporary shelter during the pandemic, so the regular polling place for the surrounding neighborhood had moved to the neighboring Troubh Ice Arena. By 10 a.m., election workers said turnout was light. Just five people waited at the door when the polling place opened. Three hours later only 80 people had cast ballots in person.

Warden Susan Maataoui said she expects turnout to remain low throughout the day because so many people chose to use absentee ballots. As she stood in the lobby of the ice arena, a woman entered with four envelopes in her hand and asked about returning absentee ballots. A worker directed her to City Hall.

“We’re here,” Maataoui said. “We’re set up to make sure this is as safe as possible.”

The polling place looked different than a typical election, not just because the location changed this year. Every worker wore a mask and a face shield. The floor was marked with red tape so voters could maintain social distancing. Only four voters were allowed to work on their ballots at one time, and caution tape blocked off some booths so people didn’t stand too close together.

But election workers said the low turnout meant those guidelines had not yet created long lines.

“If we had the kind of crowds we had in ’18, there would be a problem,” said Harlan Baker, who has worked the polling place for years and manned the front door on Tuesday.

Maataoui said she was proud of the work the city and her team had done so far on the primary. But she worried about the general election, when turnout will be much larger.

“November is top of mind,” she said.

At Deering High School, poll warden Barbara Harvey said voters so far were adapting seamlessly with the tweaks to voting procedure brought by the virus.

Large, clear plastic screens separate check-in workers from the public, and a worker wipes down the fold-out kiosks after every use. Turnout was spare, she said, about 85 people as of about 11 a.m.

The low-key atmosphere helps ease the training of new poll workers, many of whom signed up after the city raised the alarm of a worker shortage caused by the virus. Harvey was training a new warden Tuesday.

“We’ll need all hands on deck come November,” she said.

Most voters have not raised any complaints about the new voting protocols, except for one rite of voting deemed too problematic in light of social distancing restriction.

“The biggest complaint is that we don’t have an ‘I voted’ sticker,” Harvey said.

Voter Joe Wolfberg, 82, said he tried to order his absentee ballot, but it never came in the mail, so he decided to vote in person. Wearing a white mask and hat, Wolfberg said he felt comfortable voting in person while taking necessary precautions. But he said people are too cavalier, even in Maine, where the daily virus count has shrunk steadily.

“These times are different than any other times this country has seen,” Wolfberg said. “And it’s not going to end any time soon.”

The vote count at the Italian Heritage Center was also low – about 107 ballots cast as of 11:30 a.m. The polling site is set up on one of the venue’s large dining rooms, where there was ample space for the steady of voters to maintain social distance.

“Today’s not a big deal but November is going to be full,” said warden Dale Kinney. “It will be tricky, but doable. Some polling locations are quite small.”