Secretary of State Matt Dunlap says Maine could set a record for voter turnout this year.
Officials were projecting 65-67 percent turnout and with nearly 250,000 absentee ballots processed already, Dunlap says clerks are doing a good job keeping up. Turnout has been reported as steady and, in some cases, extremely heavy with long lines.
For first-time voter Mulonda Wa Mulonda of Lewiston, participating in this election left him nothing short of ecstatic. He was snapping photos of himself before he even left his polling place. Outside he said he had one candidate on his mind when he filled out his ballot.
“Today I vote for Hillary Clinton because I support women and I love them,” he says.
Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Wa Mulonda says he loves Clinton’s plan to make public university and college tuition-free. His friend Farhiya Mahumad also voted for Clinton. She says she couldn’t support Donald Trump for a variety of reasons.
“Mostly it’s the immigration, anti-immigration rant. Anti-Muslim rant. Anti-woman rant. Everything about him I don’t like,” she says, laughing. “I would be very scared to have a president like him that hates people so much. I would be scared to live in a country like that.”
But across the river in Auburn, Keith Smith said he was voting for one reason only. He doesn’t want Hillary Clinton to win.
“She’s a really poor example for our up and coming people. All the lying and stuff, it’s bad. It’s really bad. I’m not saying that Donald Trump’s the best person in the world but Hillary Clinton is probably the worst,” he says.
In addition to the presidential contest, Maine voters had two congressional candidates and five ballot measures to consider, including taxing and regulating recreational marijuana, requiring a background check for most gun sales and raising the minimum wage.
Smith says he voted against all of them except one — he supports raising the minimum wage. He says understands that people can’t live on $7.50 an hour anymore.
Jack Uminski of Falmouth says he voted against everything on the ballot. He says he resents deciding policy matters by referendum.
And then there’s Janet Scala, also a Falmouth resident, who says she voted for all of the ballot measures.
“The only one that I have questions about is Question No. 1 with the marijuana, because I think we’re sort of putting the cart before the horse, that we haven’t figured out all the issues that arise from that before we’ve said, ‘Let’s try it,’” she says.
But Scala says she ultimately decided to put her trust in the Maine Legislature to work things out.
“Working things out” is a big theme for voters on both sides of the aisle and of all backgrounds. Many people we spoke to said they’re tired of the name calling and the acrimony. They want to see their leaders figure out a way to work together or, at the very least, says Wendyll Case of Freeport, to show some restraint.
“I hope the outcome, no matter who wins is that we can figure out some self control and not be so divisive,” she says.
And there is one other thing on which they all agree: they just want this election to be over.
