REGION — Voter turnout may have appeared lighter than normal during the primary elections Tuesday, July 14, but in most cases was higher than two years ago.

The difference this year was in the number of absentee ballots cast.

New Sharon Town Clerk Pam Adams said the turnout was very good.

“It’s always about the same, usually low 200s. It’s comparable,” New Vineyard Town Clerk Michelle Beedy said. When contacted, she wasn’t able to provide numbers for the June 2018 primary election. “There were many more absentee ballots this year.”

In Eustis, about 40 absentee ballots were cast, Town Clerk Kathy Fearon said.

Farmington had the highest number of absentee ballots cast at 1,105.

“I just think more people are doing it this way. We encouraged it,” Farmington Town Clerk Leanne Dickey said July 7.

In Livermore and Rangeley, there were 30 to 35 fewer votes cast this year than in 2018. Jay had four fewer votes cast than in 2018 while Kingfield had 10 fewer this year.

All other towns providing numbers had more votes cast in 2020 than in 2018.

Farmington had 1,750 total votes in 2020.

In 2018 1,426 votes were cast when resident Janet Mills was the gubernatorial candidate, and 889 in the 2016 June elections, Dickey said.

Attempts to obtain voting numbers from Livermore Falls and Phillips were not successful.

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