LEWISTON — Absentee ballots are available for the June 14 election at city halls in both Lewiston and Auburn, city clerks said Wednesday.

The state deadline to get or request an absentee ballot is Thursday, June 9.

The city clerks’ offices in both Lewiston and Auburn will be open June 9 until 7 p.m., and voters can vote or pick up absentee ballots at that time, Auburn City Clerk Susan Clements-Dallaire said.

Absentee ballots must be returned before 8 p.m. on June 14, the date of the state primary.

June 14 is also Lewiston’s special municipal election for the school budget validation and the school construction project, which asks voters whether they approve the construction of a new elementary school near the high school.

All voters will be issued a school construction ballot and a school budget ballot, Lewiston City Clerk Kathy Montejo said.

Voters enrolled in the Democratic or Republican party will be issued ballots for their parties and will vote on a representative to congressional District 2, State Senate District 21, legislative districts 58, 59, 60 and 61, registrar of probate and county commissioner.

In Auburn, voters will decide on the school budget and the state primary, which includes a representative to Congress, county and Maine legislative seats.

Holding the school budget vote on the June primary makes sense, Clements-Dallaire said, because it helps boost voter turnout.

In Lewiston, the voter turnout on the May 10 school budget was 2.8 percent. The budget was rejected by six votes.

Auburn has been holding school budget votes in June for several years and has seen higher voter turnout percentages of between 6 and 16 percent, Clements-Dallaire said.

Voting by absentee ballot is becoming increasingly popular, Lewiston’s Montejo said.

“Voters are interested in absentee voting for a variety of reasons,” she said. They can have additional time to study and review their ballots, avoid going out in bad weather on Election Day and don’t have to change their personal or work schedule for Election Day, Montejo said.

So far this year, requests for absentee ballots in Auburn have been few, Clements-Dallaire said. “We haven’t had too many requests, probably 70 in all.”

Lewiston has more than 25,000 registered voters; Auburn has about 15,600.

To get an absentee ballot, voters registered in Lewiston have several options, Montejo said.

They can call the City Clerk’s Office at 513-3124, order an absentee ballot online at www.ci.lewiston.me.us/voter, or come into the office on the second floor of City Hall between Monday and Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The number for the Auburn City Clerk’s office is 333-6601, extension 1126, and the website is www.auburnmaine.gov/Pages/Government/City-Clerk.

While voters can call to request an absentee ballot for themselves, they can’t request a ballot for another person.

“We have to speak to the voter individually,” Clements-Dallaire said.

People can, however, come in and get an absentee ballot for a family member by filling out an application, she said.

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