One in seven registered Twin Cities voters has already cast a ballot in November’s presidential election, according to statistics from the offices of the city clerks.

The Lewiston clerk’s office notes that 3,559 of the city’s registered voters had cast their ballots as of Monday morning – just 671 ballots short of the absentee ballots cast in the 2004 presidential election. That represents 15 percent of all registered voters in the city so far.

Voting has been similarly brisk in Auburn. Of that city’s 16,800 registered voters, 2,174 have voted early with absentee ballots – about 13 percent. The city clerk’s office in Auburn Hall has been busy for the past few weeks, with 75 to 100 people per day stopping by to register or get an absentee ballot. City Clerk Mary Lou Magno expects that to continue right up until Election Day.

“We did set a record for absentee ballots in 2004,” Magno said. “I know that we’ll go over that, easily.”

Statewide, absentee voting seemed to be on the increase as well and may account for nearly 25 percent of the total vote, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap told the Associated Press on Monday.

Four years ago, about 166,000 absentee ballots were cast in Maine, well over twice the total in the previous presidential contest. As of Monday, nearly 135,000 absentee ballots had been requested in city and town halls statewide and more than 93,000 had been completed and returned, election officials said.

Given those figures and reports from town and city halls throughout the state, it appears likely that the previous total of absentee ballots will be surpassed, Dunlap said.

Special registration and voting hours Saturday were popular as well in the Twin Cities. In Lewiston, Deputy City Clerk Kelly Mercier said 80 people took out absentee ballots Saturday, and 75 voted on the spot. In Auburn, Magno said 53 people took out absentee ballots and 39 voted on the spot.

Lines will get longer, Mercier said. She’s expecting an influx of students from Bates College to come in to register later this week.

“We can never tell if they’ll show up here before the election or if they’ll just go to the armory,” she said.

Both cities will host special registration hours again from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 1.

Voters can continue to register until the polls close Tuesday night. Mercier said the city is training 72 special registrars to handle crowds expected for the presidential ballot.

“It might be easier for people to just go to the polls if they have to register or change addresses,” she said. “That’s all the registrars will do Tuesday. But in the clerk’s office, we have to answer phones and deal with other customers. It might be less frustrating.”

Saturday will also be the last day for Lewiston voters to use the City Hall voting booths to fill in their absentee ballots. Auburn will continue to provide separate booths for voters to fill in their ballots privately on Monday, Nov. 3. Voters in both cities can pick up absentee ballots Monday and have until the polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday to hand them in.

Even with absentee voting, there’s a potential for 650,000 voters to turn out at the polls on Election Day, said Dunlap, pushing turnout of registered voters toward the 75-80 percent range. Maine typically has one of the nation’s highest turnouts, and is one of only nine states with Election Day registration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report