Residents in two districts in Androscoggin County must choose between candidates whose names will not appear on the ballot Nov. 5.

Two write-in candidates are facing off against each other in both District 6, which consists of the towns of Poland, Mechanic Falls and a portion of Auburn near the Durham border, and District 1, which includes downtown Lewiston.

In both races, the individuals are certified as declared write-in candidates, according to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State.

Voters must write in the names of the candidate they want to represent them on the county commission on the appropriate line and fill in the oval next to the name for the vote to count.

In District 6, Katharyn Cormier, a Republican from Auburn, is competing against Democrat Jane Pentheny of Poland to replace the retiring Terri Kelly, the board’s vice chairman.

Cormier, who worked at Denny’s for 25 years and formerly ran a taxi business in the Twin Cities, has volunteered for many Republican candidates, but this is her first attempt at elected office.

“I always work on campaigns at the office,” Cormier said. “I’m retired. We were just talking, and this was an opening that would not take a great deal of time to kind of get my feet wet in the whole, political thing.”

Pentheny is a former Poland Selectman who served three years. She is also a former Androscoggin County Budget Committee member.

Believing that local candidates should be nonpartisan, Pentheny says her goal is to represent all of her neighbors and residents of District 6, while keeping a watchful eye on the county budget.

“The most important issue is keeping the expenses under control so that property taxpayers are not bankrupted paying their property taxes,” Pentheny said.

The budget was also atop Cormier’s list.

“Exactly what I want is oversight over the budget,” she said. “Getting a handle on where the money is actually going. They have some huge, huge numbers for different things. They may be very credible numbers, or they may not be. That’s what I’m interested in is making sure that everything is quite legit.”

The race in District 1 to replace outgoing Commissioner Edouard Plourde features a rare general election contest against two members of the same party — Democrats Shukri Abdirahman and Thomas Shannon.

Abdirahman is running for office for the first time. She was appointed to serve on the Lewiston Advisory Committee for Community Safety and was formerly the co-director of Maine Youth Power.

“I am running to be a representative, a person who is able to show representation that hasn’t been shown before,” Abdirahman said. “The County Commission being primarily like the older generation, or having mostly white men serve on the commission. So, for me as a woman of color, as a young person, as an immigrant, as a person who has worked really hard in Lewiston, Maine, I think it is my opportunity to be able to show my city and my people that I’m ready to take this role and take the steps to be a leader and inspire young people.”

Shannon, who is retired, served more than 20 years on the Lewiston School Board, before stepping down in 2019, and also served in the state Legislature for one term. He said he was approached by a group that included members of the commission who urged him to run.

“Mostly, I’m running for the job because they have some big expenses coming up — the jail and the Sheriff’s Department,” Shannon said. “They’re moving the Sheriff’s Department to Route 4. I think that’s a wonderful idea. But I don’t know if they have set aside enough money for the retrofit that will be needed. That’s for the next budget to worry about.”

Shannon, who touted his work on budgets as a member of the School Committee, added that he has heard of a plan to expand the county jail into the space the Sheriff’s Office will vacate in the current county building, which could cost $2 million, he added.

Any move out of downtown Auburn is a concern for Abdirahman, who said such a move by the sheriff and the rest of the county offices would make it difficult from residents living downtown in the Twin Cities to walk to the county building for services.

Shannon would also like to see the county and the cities of Lewiston-Auburn revisit combining their 911 emergency service instead of operating two separate services.

The only other election involving the Androscoggin County Commission is District 4, where incumbent Republican Garrett Mason of Lisbon is running unopposed. District 4 includes, Lisbon, Sabattus and Wales.

The Register of Probate is the only other countywide race in Androscoggin County this year. Democrat Thomas Reynolds, who has held the position since first being elected in 2016, is once again running unopposed.