Cutler comes to L-A

One of the three independent gubernatorial candidates is opening an office in Auburn. Eliot Cutler is scheduled to open the doors of his new office located at 1 Great Falls Plaza in Auburn on Wednesday. His campaign is providing lunch to all who stop by between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., according to a campaign press release.

There are now officially five candidates running for the state’s top job — Democratic nominee Libby Mitchell of Vassalboro, Republican nominee Paul LePage of Waterville and Independents Cutler of Cape Elizabeth, Shawn Moody of Gorham and Kevin Scott of Andover.

Mitchell and LePage emerged as winners in the state’s primary races held last Tuesday and the independent candidates qualified for the ballot by collecting 4,000 valid signatures from Maine voters and turning them into the Maine Secretary of State’s office by June 1.

Primary numbers

Official voter turnout numbers were not yet available on Friday, according to Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, but by using the unofficial counts, it appears overall turnout by eligible Maine voters was about 25 percent. That’s a bit higher than in the past and higher than what Dunlap expected.

Digging a little deeper into the unofficial numbers, which are drawn from the Bangor Daily News’ page of statewide voting results, it’s apparent that Republicans turned out in high numbers.

While Dunlap’s office speaks of voter turnout in terms of “eligible voters,” the only way to break down turnout for the individual parties is in terms of registered voters. Eligible voters are everyone in Maine who is 18 and over — those eligible to vote. Registered voters, are of course, registered to vote as Democrats, Republicans or are unenrolled. There are about 1,270,000 eligible Maine voters and 975,000 registered Maine voters, according to the latest available data, Dunlap said. That puts Tuesday’s voter turnout of registered voters at about 33 percent.

About 50 percent of registered Republicans turned out to vote on Tuesday, versus about 38 percent of Democrats and 18 percent of Maine’s unenrolled voters.

There were anecdotal reports from municipal clerks from around the state about a higher-than-usual number of unenrolled voters asking to enroll in one official party or another in order to cast votes in the gubernatorial primaries. Information about how many same-day party enrollments there actually were — and which party attracted the most unenrolled voters — will be available soon, Dunlap said.

Bye-bye Bryant

The Oxford County Democrats will honor outgoing state Sen. Bruce Bryant of Dixfield at a dinner at the Rumford Eagles Hall on Thursday, June 24, at 5:30 p.m., according to a press release.

Bryant has served four terms in the state senate and is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

A barbecue chicken dinner will be followed by a tribute to Bryant from friends and fellow lawmakers, according to a release from the Oxford County Democrats. The event costs $15 per person, $12 for seniors and students. For more information, call 875-2116.

 For more up-to-date political news, visit www.sunjournal.com/politicalgrind.

— Rebekah Metzler