Compared to the highly anticipated presidential election coming later this November, the primary elections this Super Tuesday in Maine were much more relaxed.
"We always have a soft offline bet between the election workers," said Carol Morrissette, election warden for Portland's polling station located at Merrill Auditorium next to City Hall. "I think I'm going to fail miserably because I was estimating probably high at 375 [voters]."
As of 10:30 Tuesday morning, Morrissette's polling place had processed just 75 total votes across both the Republican and Democratic ballots.
"We hope [voter turnout] might reach 20% of registered voters [and] it's certainly lower than we've seen in past primaries," said Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows. "Of course, this is only our second presidential primary in recent times. It may be a function of people believing that the front runners have been decided in both of those primaries."
Bellows visited several polling places across the state throughout the course of election day — South Portland, Auburn, and Augusta. Bellows issued a ruling late last year disqualifying Donald Trump from the Maine ballot due to his role in the January 6th insurrection. Bellows reversed her position on Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision restoring Trump on Colorado's ballot.
I think the US Supreme Court decision yesterday provides some much-needed clarity," said Bellows. "So going into Election Day, voters do have that needed clarity — as do the election clerks and wardens who are administering the election."
This is Maine’s first semi-open primary in which unenrolled voters can choose to vote on either the Democratic or Republican ballot. Of the 35 thousand total voters who had requested an absentee ballot, secretary Bellows says around five thousand were unenrolled.
