LEWISTON – Vi Caron arrived at the Multi-Purpose Center Tuesday morning to find a long line of people waiting for the doors to open.

In her 52 years as a volunteer ballot clerk, she has seen crowds that big only a few times: the first year Dwight Eisenhower ran against Adlai Stevenson, and eight years later when John F. Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon.

“This place was loaded those days,” Caron said as she watched Lewiston’s downtown residents send their ballots through the voting machine. “This morning was the first time in ages we’ve seen lines like that.”

Voters throughout Androscoggin County went to the polls Tuesday in record numbers.

In Lewiston, 68 percent of the city’s 26,844 registered voters cast ballots. In Auburn, which has 17,000 registered voters, about 73 percent voted.

The heavy turnout was no surprise.

Given this year’s tight presidential race and the two controversial statewide referendums, city and town clerks throughout the county expected this year’s numbers to surpass the average presidential turnout of 60 percent.

Still, the large numbers made for some hectic moments, especially in the morning.

“This morning was crazy,” said Robin DuLac, the town clerk in Sabattus.

Voters in Sabattus started showing up at the Town Hall about a half-hour before the polls opened at 8 a.m. Within the first hour, 200 of the town’s 3,400 registered voters had cast their ballots. By 3 p.m., the total reached 1,179.

“Some of my election workers were late because they couldn’t get a spot in the parking lot,” Dulac said.

Auburn Town Clerk Mary Lou Magno was setting up the polls at Auburn Hall at 6 a.m. when people started showing up to ask if they could vote. By 1 p.m., 900 of the 3,000 registered voters in Auburn’s Ward 1 had cast their ballots.

“I’d say that’s heavy, considering we still have seven hours to go,” Magno said.

Despite the heavy turnout, election workers described the pace after the morning rush as steady, and many voters reported relatively short waits.

“They got us right in and out,” said Tim Aube of Auburn.

Aube and his wife, Darcie, both 36, voted for the first time Tuesday. The Auburn couple said it was a combination of the close presidential election and the statewide referendums that made them decide it was time to register.

“My important issue was the bear legislation,” Tim Aube said. “I go hunting all of the time, and I just worry that if it passes, a bear will attack a kid. We can’t take that chance.”

The couple voted at Auburn Hall at about 12:30 p.m. They expected to wait in a long line of people voting during their lunch breaks, but they registered and cast their ballots in less than a half-hour.

Some clerks speculated that the steady pace and lack of long lines throughout most of the day was the result of so many people voting by absentee ballot this year.

“It’s made it hard to judge,” Magno said.

More than 3,000 people in Auburn voted by absentee ballot. In Lewiston, the count was about 4,000, compared to 1,700 in 2000. The same was true for smaller towns. More than 850 voters cast absentee ballots in Lisbon, compared to 370 in 2000.

In addition to heavy turnouts, many towns and cities reported a record number of new registrations. At times throughout the day, the lines behind the registration tables were longer than the lines for the polls.

Lucy Bisson, an election worker for Ward 1 in Lewiston, said she usually registers about a dozen people on Election Day. She had a stack of about 100 new registrations by noon Tuesday.

Lucienne Tremaine was one of them. Like many, it was the presidential election that inspired her to finally register at age 49.

“I want Bush out of there,” she said. “I don’t agree with how he’s handled Iraq. I think he’s only in there to avenge his father.”

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