As Nov. 5 General Elections approach, more citizens are voting, either by absentee ballot or at the one or two temporary voting booths that some municipal offices have set up to accomodate the trend. The New York Times reported Oct. 22 that 15 million voters, out of the approximately 161 million voters, across the country have already cast ballots.

In Maine, there were 995,285 registered voters as of March 29, according to the  Maine Bureau of Elections. 

A number of residents in Camden and Rockport took advantage of mid-October tax due dates — that day when real estate owners trek to the town office to pay their biannual installment of property tax bills — to also pick up absentee ballots to take home and fill out, or slip into the voting booth to cast a ballot right then and there.

Liz Lowe, Rockport's town clerk, reported that 37 citizens took advantage of early voting to cast ballots in person on Oct. 15, when the town's property taxes were due.

Of Rockport's 2,935 enrolled and registered voters, 835 had already requested absentee ballots as of Oct. 17. As of that same day, 379 voters had returned their ballots to the Rockport Town Office.

In Camden, 121 citizens voted in person on property tax due date, Oct. 15.

Of the 4,392 registered voters in Camden, 1,218 had requested absentee ballots by Oct. 17. And of those, 639 had returned their ballots by Oct. 17.

In Rockland, of the 4,774 registered voters, 1,081 have requested absentee ballots and 633 of them were returned to City Hall by Oct. 17.

While property taxes were due in Rockland Sept. 26, that was the same day that the City Clerk's office began filling orders for the 300-plus absentee ballots requests that had been received prior to Rockland even receiving its ballots from the printers. It was a busy day in that City Hall.

The early voting trend in Maine was initiated in 2009 in the 122nd Legislature in response, "to concerns raised by clerks from several municipalities about the increased volume of in­-person and other absentee voting that occurred during the 2004 Presidential Election," said Maine's Secretary of State's Office.

In Maine, registered voters are able to cast absentee ballots instead of voting in person on Election Day.

You don't need to have a specific reason or be unable to vote at the voting place on Election Day to receive an absentee ballot.

According to a 2010 Report on the November 2009 Pilot Program for Early Voting submitted to the Legislature: "absentee voting had nearly doubled from about 11% of total ballots cast in the 2000 Presidential Election, to almost 22% in 2004. Clerks reported feeling overwhelmed by the preparations for, and the processing of, absentee ballots during Election Day 2004. (Note: By the 2008 Presidential Election, absentee voting comprised over 32% of the total ballots cast.) The original proposal directed the Secretary of State to design a process that would allow municipalities to permit voting at a voting place up to 2 weeks prior to Election Day, and to submit a report to the Joint Standing Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs by December 1, 2005."

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657