LEWISTON — A couple years ago, Elaine Hemenway decided that the 2020 presidential election would be her last.

At 78, Hemenway has been election warden in Lewiston’s Ward 3 for nearly two decades, and has been working the polls for even longer. Despite the pandemic, she’s following through with her promise to work this election.

“I think it’s time, maybe, that younger people step up and accept the challenge,” she said last week, making a pitch to younger volunteers. “From the first time I worked an election, I was hooked.”

Heading into one of the most anticipated and unprecedented elections in history, the Sun Journal spoke with three longtime election wardens in Lewiston about what they are facing this year and what has kept them coming back.

Being an election warden, an appointed position, means being in charge of the voting process for an entire ward — or polling location — on Election Day.

Joan St. Hiliare, the Ward 6 warden, simplified it to “keeping everybody happy,” a goal that she still plans to achieve despite the circumstances this year.

“We just try to enjoy the process, and we try to make it as easy and as simple for (voters) as we can,” she said.

According to City Clerk Kathy Montejo, the city promotes longtime election workers “who seem interested and capable of handling the work as a supervisor” to the warden position. It’s typically after they have served as a ward clerk, known as second in command.

Lucy Bisson, 73, first got involved in politics 48 years ago when famed U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith was seeking re-election. Soon after, she began getting calls from the clerk’s office, asking if she’d be interested in working at the polls. She’s worked in various capacities during elections ever since.

Some elections, she’d work full days at the polls. Others, she’d work just at night, back when ballots were still hand-counted. She’s been the Ward 1 warden for roughly 15 years.

“As a warden, you’re there from six in the morning until closing,” she said. “I do it because I feel it’s a civic duty. It’s certainly not for the money.”

Bisson said she became warden at about the same time Montejo became city clerk. Like other wardens, Bisson said Montejo “knows her stuff,” and she is confident in Lewiston’s elections because of Montejo’s leadership.

Bisson expects this year to have a very different feel than previous elections. Ward 1 encompasses a lot of the Bates College neighborhood, and election workers are used to seeing groups of between 60 and 70 students voting together, she said. This year, she expects many of them will have already voted absentee.

As for election-worker safety, Bisson said each worker will receive their own “PPE package” for the day. Despite the precautions, she said several of her friends opted out of volunteering this year due to COVID-19.

“A lot of us are older,” she said. “But, they don’t want to take any chances, so they’re not going to do it on Tuesday. Something they’ve been doing for years.”

For St. Hiliare, her involvement in local politics stemmed from her father, a former city councilor in Lewiston. She’s been working at the polls since the 1970s, first as an election worker, then ward clerk, and onto warden.

She’s confident that Lewiston’s election team will be able to run a smooth election, even under COVID-19 guidelines that restrict building capacity to 50 people, including election workers.

Even with the record number of absentee ballots cast, she expects the polls to be busy. Due to the capacity limits, she’s hoping they can avoid long wait times, which, with lines in the cold outdoors rather than inside, could turn people away.

“With the restrictions, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for voters,” Bisson said. “It’s going to be very different.”

St. Hiliare, now 63, was in her 20s when she started working elections. She said there’s nothing like that Election Day buzz.

“I’m looking forward it,” she said. “I enjoy seeing people, and that’s why I keep coming back.”

All three wardens who spoke to the Sun Journal were heading to a pre-election meeting for poll workers late Wednesday, and were scheduled to take part in an all-day event Saturday at the Lewiston Armory to begin processing more than 10,000 absentee ballots.

Referring to her decision to retire as warden, Hemenway said she wanted to “go out” on a presidential election, which is why she had marked 2020 as her last election.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every year,” she said. “I haven’t regretted a single day. I’ve worked with some terrific people. I just kind of said to myself, ‘Elaine, it’s been great, but let’s give someone else a chance.'”

Know someone with a deep well of unlimited public spirit? Someone who gives of their time to make their community a better place? Then nominate them for Kudos. Send their name and the place where they do their good deeds to reporter Andrew Rice at arice@sunjournal.com and we’ll do the rest.

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