RUMFORD – Seth Carey of Rumford was pleased early Tuesday night after fielding early reports on the amount of signatures gathered statewide on his proposed Oxford County casino project.

But, handling the logistics to get hundreds of petitioners to Election Day polls on time was very trying and not without problems, especially in Central Maine.

“It’s been pretty hectic,” Carey said in Portland when contacted by phone an hour before polls closed. Many of his signature gatherers don’t have cell phones.

“A big problem today was not getting petitions to Newport and Central Maine. We sent them three to four days ago, but today, I had to have people drive them there,” he said.

He didn’t know how many signatures had been gathered, but said one man reported collecting 900. He needs several thousand.

“We’re doing well. We got a big response in Bangor. I’ve worked all day, and done the best I could,” said Carey, 31, who is president and chief executive officer of Evergreen Mountain Enterprises LLC, the company behind the Evergreen Mountain Resort casino.

If approved, he plans to locate the casino somewhere between Rumford and Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry.

Rather than seek financial backing, Carey focused his efforts on getting the required signatures to place a referendum before Maine voters in either November 2007 or 2008.

That referendum, An Act to Allow a Casino in Oxford County, asks, “Do you want to allow a certain Maine company to have the only casino in Maine, to be located in Oxford County, if part of the revenue is used to fund specific state programs?”

Months prior to Tuesday, Carey advertised in a local weekly newspaper, seeking signature gatherers, offering them $100 to work on Election Day.

“A few people are doing it for the money, but most of them believe in it,” he said.

Signature collectors Faye Cureton, Sabrina Roberts and Lawrence Ward Jr., all of Rumford, and Jennie Vickers of Peru, believe the resort will make a difference in and for Maine.

With a few hours left to vote in Rumford, Cureton said she had garnered 500 signatures.

“It creates jobs and helps the community,” she said.

“I think it’s a good thing, and I’m not even a gambler, but if we don’t do something, we’re going to have tumbleweeds blowing down the street,” Cureton added.

The lure of more jobs appealed to many who signed.

“We got a few people who like it, and a few that don’t, so, half-and-half ain’t too bad, and, some people don’t like it, but they were still signing it,” Ward said at about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Vickers was pleased that she’d gathered almost 200 signatures from among the 500 who had voted by 5 p.m.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Peru voter Ed Todd said.

“Anything more to provide jobs is a step in the right direction, and, is better than anything we’ve done in the past 10 years,” he added.

According to the petition proposal, 39 percent of the gambling profits would be given to the state, but only if the proceeds would be used for several listed environmental and social programs.

Among the benefits listed are funding for innovative clean energy production, property tax reduction, raising the minimum wage, prescription drugs for the elderly, and road improvements.

Carey said he believes the casino resort would stem the flow of young people out of Maine by fulfilling entertainment needs.

In addition to removing the limit on the total number of slot machines allowed to be registered in Maine, Carey’s petition seeks to lower the minimum age to play slot machines from 21 to 19.

He got that idea from visiting casinos in Washington state.