Most polling stations in Oxford County were running smoothly Tuesday afternoon, despite unusually high voter turnout and a steady stream of new voter registrations.

“The complaints have been sporadic and they seem to have been settled,” Erlon Jones, campaign coordinator for the Oxford County Republican Headquarters, said early Tuesday evening. “Turnout’s been very high – we’ve heard this from most of our polling places throughout the county.”

In Paris, the only problem at 4:30 p.m. was a lack of “I voted today” stickers. When asked for more, Paris Town Clerk Betty Larson laughed.

“I think we ran out of those at 10 o’clock,” she said.

More than 1,600 voters had cast their ballots by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Larson said. The town also had received about 600 absentee ballots. In addition, there was a steady line of new voters going through the registration process.

“I am a little surprised,” Larson admitted, glancing at the line. “I didn’t expect as many because they had been registering before.”

Larson said the town had been receiving new voter registrations right up until Election Day.

The 1,600 votes cast by Tuesday afternoon represented well more than half of the total voter turnout in Paris for the 2000 presidential election. That year, Larson said, there were 2,366 votes cast.

In Norway, Town Clerk Shirley Boyce said the number of registered voters was up by about 300 this year. “It used to be a little more than 3,300,” she said. Now, she said, that number is around 3,600.

“There’s a lot of interest this year – it’s nice,” Boyce said.

Norway also had received 580 absentee ballots by Tuesday afternoon, Boyce said. At about 5 p.m., 1,874 votes had been cast.

In Oxford, Deputy Clerk Elizabeth Knox laughed when asked about the voter turnout.

“Steady,” was the first word she thought to use.

“First thing this morning we had a good crowd turnout right then and we had to start two lines,” Knox said. “And it’s been pretty steady since then.”

Ballot Clerk Yvette Lizotte said 1,300 votes had been cast by about 4:15 p.m.

Janie Campino, regional field coordinator for the Oxford County Democratic Headquarters, said she was repeatedly hearing, “There’ve been more (voters) than ever before’ – that type of thing.”

“We’ve had great local candidates, and obviously this is a hotly contested national race,” she said.