FARMINGTON — Wooden ballot boxes are as traditional as annual town meetings in New England.

Scarred and worn from years of use, the boxes are pulled from storage and used for elections by area towns.

Elections, governed by the Secretary of State, and state-furnished ballot boxes are based on an old-time state law, but records were not kept and little is known about when or who built them, said Julie Flynn, deputy secretary of state.

The law requires that official boxes be used, but now towns can make their own boxes at their own expense. It then has to be approved by the Secretary of State to make it official, she said.

When one was needed for Perkins Township, Weld Selectman Bernard Vining made a box identical to Weld’s except for the wood coloring, Weld Town Clerk Carol Cochran said.

That’s because the box needs to fit a uniform design, according to Maine law. Each must have an opening on the top, large enough for a ballot but no hand to enter, and have a sliding device to cover the opening. The box must be “equipped with a suitable lock and key,” according to the law, Flynn said.

Those locks and keys have caused more than one incident as ballot clerks rushed to tally numbers.

Weld voters previously voted in the selectmen’s office where the box sat on top of a safe, Cochran said. The box key was placed in the safe during elections. A child waiting for a parent to vote managed to lock the safe with the key inside. In a hurry to count the ballots, clerks picked the ballot box lock, she said. Later the safe was opened and the key retrieved.

Farmington Town Clerk Leanne Pinkham remembered a similar incident when she was working in Anson. The key was lost and bolt cutters were used to get to the ballots.

The box works well for smaller elections, Pinkham said. Farmington, Wilton and Jay each have voting machines used for large, contested races.

For the upcoming selectmen’s vote on April 1, she has created a ballot and will use the wooden box.

Jay changed to an electronic machine in 1988, Town Clerk Rhonda Palmer said. After one heavy vote kept her and others up until after 4 a.m. counting votes, she wasn’t sorry to see the town change. The old ballot box is still used for smaller elections, she said.

Wilton’s Town Clerk Linda Jellison also remembered a 5 a.m. finish, going home for a nap and back to work at 8 a.m. She now favors the machine, too.

For smaller towns, that’s not always practical. With 352 registered voters it wouldn’t be worth the cost, Cochran said.

When towns move on to machines, several have called asking if the state wants their ballot box back, Flynn said. The state has taken them and given them to other towns that needed an one or that had a box that was falling apart but now most towns just make up their own, she said.

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