AUGUSTA (AP) – Political organizers and election officials are shifting their attention from campaigns to turnout as they encourage voters to get to the polls Tuesday for elections that will choose a governor, U.S. senator, two congressional representatives and a new Legislature.

Maine Democrats were mobilizing phone banks and neighborhood canvassing efforts to get voters out. A network of lawyers to staff a “voter protection hotline” was also being organized, said Jess Knox of the party’s coordinated campaign to win elections up and down the ballot.

The Maine College Republicans said many of their 2,000 new recruits would spread out in neighborhoods across the state and make phone calls to voters as part of the Maine GOP’s most ambitious get-out-the-vote effort.

Many towns and cities have been encouraging residents to vote early by absentee ballot. In Bangor alone, 10 percent of the city’s 22,000 registered voters had requested absentee ballots by the last week in October.

Besides reducing waiting lines at the polls, absentee voting also helps town officials to manage their work more efficiently on Election Day, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Thursday.

“It used to be you had to have a written reason” for getting an absentee ballot, said Dunlap. That is no longer the case.

Dunlap, Maine’s chief election official, said he expects turnout on Tuesday to be 45 to 55 percent of eligible voters. The range is wide, he said, because “you don’t know what the wild cards are going to be.”

Turnout could be influenced by the weather, or by ballot issues that turn out to be more enticing to voters than anticipated.

In Maine’s last gubernatorial election, in 2002, turnout was about 50 percent. The election isn’t directly comparable to Tuesday’s, however, because the governor’s seat was open four years ago. This year, incumbent Democratic Gov. John Baldacci faces four ballot rivals: Republican Chandler Woodcock, independent Barbara Merrill, Green Independent Pat LaMarche and independent Phillip Morris NaPier.

In 2003, a referendum ballot featuring questions about casino gambling and property tax relief helped to bring turnout to 51 percent.

The 2004 election, which featured not only a presidential contest but also questions about property tax relief and restrictions on bear hunting, drew more than 73 percent of eligible voters to the polls.

Six-hundred voting locations throughout Maine will be equipped for the first time Tuesday with a new system using telephones and faxes that enables disabled people to vote in privacy. The Accessible Voting Solution system is being tested this week for its Election Day inauguration, Dunlap said.

The AVS system is expected to have at most a minor effect on overall turnout, said Dunlap. He noted that the system is not restricted to people with disabilities. In towns where only one person uses the system, multiple users are especially encouraged to make sure a ballot can’t be identified with a voter.

AP-ES-11-02-06 1706EST