A long line stretched from one end of Portland City Hall to the other on the final day of in-person absentee voting last week.

At the midway point in the line, Chris Sessums had already been waiting a half-hour but said he didn’t mind.

People wait in a long line at City Hall before voting on Thursday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

“I’m really excited to see this many people come out and participate,” said the 58-year-old college administrator. “It doesn’t bother me. We only get to do this every four years.”

Maine consistently has one of the top rates of voter turnout in the nation and even boasted the highest voter turnout in the country in 2022, when 61.8% of the population of citizens of voting age cast ballots. The national rate that year was 46.8%.

Participating in the democratic process seems to be baked into our nature. And Maine’s state and local elections officials are expecting another large Election Day turnout on Tuesday.

“Traditionally, Maine is at the very top in the nation in voter turnout, and I’m hopeful we will see another strong election,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said, citing the high level of interest in absentee voting.

In Portland and other communities, election officials say, that may mean waiting in line or navigating extra traffic around polling places. But they say they are prepared and haven’t encountered any major issues or concerns since early voting started last month, despite strong interest statewide.

Voter turnout is typically measured as a percentage of voting-age citizens, and Maine has ranked at or near the top among all states, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan commission whose mission is to help improve the administration of elections. But when calculated based on the number of active registered voters, Maine’s 2022 turnout was even higher – at 73.3%.

The 2022 results in Maine were partly fueled by a high-stakes race for governor featuring incumbent Gov. Janet Mills and former Gov. Paul LePage. This year, the presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is no doubt the biggest factor driving people to the polls.

But elections experts say there are also perennial reasons why Maine is among the states with the highest voter turnout. They include Maine’s history as a state with strong local control and municipal governments, a voting population that is somewhat more educated than in other places, and election laws that make it easier for people to cast ballots.

THOUSANDS HAVE VOTED ABSENTEE 

City Clerk Ashley Rand said there were voting lines at City Hall for the past week. Nearly 37% of Portland’s registered voters had requested absentee ballots or cast ballots in person by Thursday afternoon.

Rand anticipates long lines on Election Day, too, and said the city is asking voters to be patient at their polling places.

“We have added more election workers to this election at each polling location than we normally have, so we are prepared,” she said.

As of Friday afternoon, 342,754 absentee ballots had already been returned and accepted statewide, including 155,726 people who cast their ballots by voting early in person. That’s roughly one-third of the state’s potential voters. Maine had about 955,285 active registered voters as of June, the most recent total available from the secretary of state’s office.

Jaynee Brooks-Robinson carries a stack of absentee ballots during processing at Windham Town Hall on October 31. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Interest in absentee voting this fall has been strongest among Democrats, which follows a pattern established in recent election cycles. Of the absentee ballots requested, 42% were requested by Democrats, 27% by Republicans and 27% by unenrolled voters. The remainder of requests have come from third-party voters, including Green Independent, No Labels and Libertarian voters.

There haven’t been any major problems with absentee ballots, but it’s too late to count on the mail to deliver ballots in time. Absentee voters who haven’t yet returned their ballots are being advised to do so by putting them in a drop box or to hand-deliver them to municipal offices before the election.

Voters can also use the state’s online tracking system to see if their ballot has been received and accepted by their municipal clerk. Voters whose ballots have not been returned and accepted by their municipal clerk by Election Day have the option to go to the polls and request that their absentee ballot be canceled and that they be reissued a new ballot.

WHY IS MAINE TURNOUT SO HIGH?

According to Bellows, Maine’s redistricting process has created competitive legislative districts, which may motivate voters to get out and vote. “Voters recognize that their vote really matters and may determine outcomes at every level,” she said.

Elections experts also point to factors dating back to Maine’s colonial roots. Fellow New England states Vermont and New Hampshire are not far behind Maine.

Colin Woodard, director of the Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University and a former Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram staff writer, said Maine’s place at the top of the list of states with high voter turnout is not surprising because participation in local government is part of the “cultural DNA” of New England.

That dates back to the early Puritan settlers who sought to set up their communities in a way that was different from the aristocracy they left in England. They established strong municipal governments that have carried forward to today. Many Maine communities still run on a town meeting form of government where residents make important decisions by stating their arguments and raising their hands.

“Today, you look at Maine and other states in (New England) and they often have home rule and very powerful municipal governments and weak counties because of the importance of democratic, immediate participation in politics,” said Woodard, who is the author of “American Nations,” a book about regionalism in the United States.

“That’s been important since the 1600s,” he said. “You roll that all together, and it creates sort of this powerful participatory and civic drive that you’re supposed to be engaged in your town’s politics and that government is the vehicle through which citizens have power.”

That philosophy has translated to policies that have made it easier for residents to participate in elections, such as same-day voter registration.

Stephanie O’Brien and Madelyn Connor, right, read sample ballots while waiting in a long line to vote on Thursday. Connor, 21, traveled home from college (Bentley College in Massachusetts) in order to vote. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

And unlike other New England states and other parts of the country, Maine fell into a massive economic depression after the Civil War that prevented new settlers from coming to the state in subsequent immigration waves, Woodard said. “That kept the old New England model” in place here.

Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida, said states with high voter turnout today tend to be the battleground states that candidates care about and where campaign activities drive people to the polls.

While Maine as a whole is reliably Democratic, the 2nd Congressional District is a swing district that draws national interest and campaign spending and translates to statewide advertising. “It’s still considered a battleground state to some extent, so that can motivate individual voters,” McDonald said.

Also, states such as Maine that offer same-day voter registrations tend to have a three to four percentage point higher turnout than states that don’t, McDonald said.

MAINE VOTERS FIND THE TIME

That Maine typically has high voter turnout is not surprising to Cheryl Pritchard, a Windham resident who was casting her absentee ballot at the municipal offices Thursday.

“I think Mainers are very conscientious of this,” said Pritchard, 69. “They’re hard workers and there’s a lot of struggling going on.”

A Republican, Pritchard cast her ballot Thursday for Harris, a Democrat, in the presidential race. “I don’t always vote Republican. I vote for the person I think is going to most enhance the Legislature or the country.”

Lydia Hill, a 20-year-old college student from Windham who is voting for Trump, said it’s especially important for young people to vote.

“A lot of my friends say (voting) is too much work, but I’m like, ‘No. It’s important. It’s your right,'” she said after picking up an absentee ballot Thursday. “I’m excited to make a difference.”

Windham Town Clerk Linda Morrell said the presidential race has been a big draw for people to vote this year. As of Thursday afternoon, about 30% of the town’s 15,000 registered voters had returned absentee ballots or voted in person. The number of absentee vote cast has already exceeded the final 2020 number, and Morrell expects a busy day Tuesday.

“Windham likes to vote, so we usually have good turnout for every election,” she said.

South Portland City Clerk Jessica Hughes said her city is also expecting a large turnout, because of a mix of local, state and national issues.

“Some folks are passionate about the referendums, at both the state and local levels,” she said. “Others want to have their voices heard in the presidential election. It’s kind of a mix of reasons (why people are voting) but it’s exciting to see them all come out to the polls.”

Voters waiting in line at City Hall in Portland on Thursday cited both the presidential election and local races as the main reasons drawing them to the polls.

Alyssa Ashby, 25, was preparing to vote for the first time. She said she wants to see women’s reproductive rights and the right to abortion preserved. She also cares about City Council races.

“I made sure to find time this year because there’s too much going on,” she said.