Democrats in more than 50 Maine municipalities won’t be able to cast votes for their presidential candidates, party officials say.

That has some campaigns miffed.

“We are concerned about the possibility of voters being disenfranchised,” said Melanie Dees, state director of the Howard Dean campaign. She pointed a finger of blame at the state party.

“The Democratic Party has failed to find someone to convene caucuses in those towns,” she said. “It’s absolutely their responsibility.”

True, said Aymie Walshe, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party.

With more than 400 towns and cities scheduled to hold caucuses Sunday, Walshe said the party has done well in rebuilding its grassroots Democratic machinery. For the last two presidential election cycles, Maine has held primaries. That change depleted smaller towns of party officials needed to host caucuses – the chief reason the party opted to return to the caucus system this year, Walshe said.

The state party had posted on its Web site a list of when and where municipalities would be holding caucuses. When residents in towns where no caucuses were listed called party headquarters to complain, they were urged to organize their own and were assisted in doing so. State and county party officials also scanned voter rolls of targeted communities, identifying possible convenors in caucusless towns.

In Livermore Falls, longtime Democrat Maxine Bailey couldn’t believe it when she read in the newspaper there would be no caucus this year in her town.

“I was shocked,” she said.

Bailey had attended Democratic caucuses there since 1980, when she was elected town clerk and treasurer.

“I thought there was more interest in town than that,” she said.

It was not for lack of interest, said Georgia Hersey, the designated convenor for Livermore Falls.

She said she had trouble pinning down a site for the caucus, then fell ill. When she failed to get a replacement, “That ended it,” she said.

Ernie Scholl will serve as convenor in New Sharon.

He got calls from residents of neighboring towns asking whether they could join his caucus because there were none scheduled in their towns. He told them they were welcome to attend but could not participate. A couple of the callers lived in Chesterville. They later organized their own caucus, he said.

Scholl said this year’s caucuses have generated a lot of interest, partly because people want to see President Bush defeated.

“There’s definitely more interest from the people I’ve spoken with who are not at all satisfied with his policies and don’t care for him personally and as the American president.”

Walshe said local organizers had until Thursday to advertise their caucuses. Those who did not meet the deadline are urged to contact the Maine Democratic Party for planning future caucuses.

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