PORTLAND – Election Day is two weeks away, but John Robinson on Monday was wearing an “I Voted Today” sticker on his jacket.

Robinson, 79, got his absentee ballot after waiting in line at Portland City Hall, where a makeshift polling place is set up where residents can register, obtain absentee ballots and then place their vote.

Across Maine, large numbers of people like Robinson are casting their ballots early. Election officials are seeing surges in voter registration, and get-out-the-vote drives are in full force.

Robinson and his wife have gotten phone calls and mailings from Democrats and Republicans urging them to vote early.

“My wife and I have agreed to drive people to the polls,” said Robinson, a supporter of Democrat John Kerry, who is running against President George W. Bush. “So I’m voting early so I’ll be able to help other people.”

Municipal clerks, political parties and campaign officials for years have urged residents to make sure they register and vote. With voter interest particularly high in the presidential race and two referendums on taxes and bear hunting, more people seem to be heeding the call this election season.

As of late last week, more than 2,800 people had newly registered to vote in Portland since Sept. 1. That’s nearly five times the 604 new registrations at the same time during the 2000 campaign.

Eleanor Rowe, 80, registered Monday.

She has never voted.

Rowe said she never had the confidence to register to vote in the past, but was motivated this year by anger – toward the president. Now she’s eager to visit her polling place on Nov. 2.

“It’s time for me to do all the things I’ve never done,” she said.

The political parties have sent hundreds of thousands of mailings to Mainers with directions on how to vote by absentee ballot. The Republican party mailed 280,000 of them, said Maine Republican Party executive director Dwayne Bickford. The Democratic party wasn’t able to supply an exact number.

Volunteers are also going door-to-door to targeted households to urge people to get out to vote.

Bickford estimated that Republican volunteers hit 10,000 homes over the weekend as part of the party’s “Walk the Vote” initiative. Based on everything he’s hearing, Bickford expects a strong turnout; in 2000, 67.7 percent of the estimated voting age population cast ballots in Maine.

“All you have to do is look at 2000 to see every vote counts,” Bickford said.

In Lewiston, City Clerk Kathy Montejo said she expects her office to handle far more absentee ballots than the 1,707 she got four years ago.

Montejo credits the increase to a new state law that makes absentee voting less restrictive, along with a postcard the city sent to voters earlier this month reminding them of their polling places and of the new absentee ballot law. State law no longer requires voters to give reasons for voting by absentee ballot.

That sits just fine with Leslie Champagne of Portland, who came to City Hall on Monday to pick up an absentee ballot for her husband, who works in Massachusetts and fears he won’t make it home on Election Day before the polls close. While she was there, she decided to vote on her own.

“I may do something to help people get out to vote on Election Day, so this will clear up the day so I can do that,” said Champagne, 52.

Portland City Clerk Linda Cohen said she’s still encouraging residents to vote on Election Day. At lunchtime on Monday, a line of more than 15 people snaked out of the polling room into a hallway.

“If they’re coming in early to vote to avoid long lines, there’ll come the point where there will be long lines,” Cohen said.

AP-ES-10-18-04 1625EDT

Copy the Story Link