FARMINGTON – With a Farmington native on the ballot, the republican turnout was double what town clerk Leanne Pinkham usually sees in a primary election.
“Last primary, we had a little over 500 republicans vote,” she said Wednesday. “I think there was a strong push for one candidate.”
On Tuesday 1,165 Republicans voted for the gubernatorial candidates, with 918 votes going to Sen. Chandler Woodcock, R-Farmington.
Before polls closed Tuesday, Pinkham was afraid that the town might run out of Republican ballots. The more than 500 absentee ballots received from the state had all been used in advance, so the ballot clerks would have had to photocopy ballots.
“It was close, but we didn’t run out,” Pinkham said. “I’ve never had them run out before ,and I’ve done this since the 1991 election.”
On Tuesday night, New Vineyard did run out of ballots, said Town Clerk Arlene Davis. She gave voters absentee ballots to use.
She saw 139 residents vote at the primary. “They sent me 100 Republican ballots and 50 Democrat ballots, and we ran out of the Republican ballots,” Davis said.
Deputy Secretary of State Doug Dunbar said it is unusual for a town to run out of ballots. When that happens, in most cases the town clerk would contact the state Division of Elections.
“Normally more than enough ballots are sent to a town, especially with a primary,” he said. If a town does run out, “We’d advise them of three options. They can use absentee ballots. If they have the same ballot questions as a neighboring town, we can authorize them to borrow them. Or they can be authorized to photocopy them.”
He said he was not contacted by New Vineyard, but if the town run out, it followed the correct protocol by using the absentee ballots.
Farmington did call and was told to photocopy if needed.
Dunbar said the state bases the number of ballots it sends to each town on 65 percent of the enrolled voters from the November 2004 election. “Whatever percentage we choose is much higher than the turn out statewide,” he said. “Only a handful of towns run low.”
In November 2004, Farmington had 1,756 Democrats enrolled and 1,910 Republicans. New Vineyard had 143 Democrats and 202 Republicans. Both town clerks saw people enroll in a political party Tuesday.
“We picked up a lot of Republicans,” Davis said.
“A lot of people who were registered but undeclared were picking a party,” Pinkham said. “They were all pretty much Republican.”
Chesterville Town Clerk Pat Gordon said voter turnout there was about 20 percent with 177 voters, and she said her day was “pretty steady with unenrolled people.” She enrolled 25 people, again almost Republicans.
This was the first primary election for New Sharon Town Clerk Rosemary Eller, who had 15 voters change from unenrolled to enrolled.”Mostly it was Republicans, with one or two Democrats,” she said.
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