Many voting booths are filled Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 5 during voting for the presidential election held at the Community Center in Farmington. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

FARMINGTON — Voting was steady during the lead up to the election and on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Town Clerk Diane Dunham had set aside Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 to process absentee ballots due to the number of returns. Ballot clerks were able to input all ballots received to date on Oct. 31, she said Friday morning.

As of 3 p.m. Friday, 1,680 absentee ballots had been requested with 1,570 returned, Dunham stated. At that time there were 6,471 registered voters listed in Farmington, although “they aren’t all active voters,” she noted. “Of those, 5,060 voted within the last two elections. It’s a pretty significant drop.”

Dunham added, “It has been a pretty rough election.”

A little after noon on Tuesday, most of the voting booths at the Community Center on Middle Street found people weighing their choices for the various candidates and referendum questions. “It’s been very steady, really good turnout,” Dunham said.

The absentee ballot numbers had risen to 1,705, she noted. Things are going smoothly, going well so far, Dunham stated. “It helps having a nicer day than we were going to have in the beginning,” she said. A forecast seen previously was not as promising as it turned out to be, she added.

Ardith Nelson feeds her ballot into a machine Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 5, while Shane Cote, ballot clerk watches during the election held at the Community Center in Farmington. Ballot clerk S. Clyde Ross is seen in the background. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

Shane Cote, a ballot clerk helped Ardith Nelson feed her ballots into the voting machine. When asked who she hoped would win the 2nd Congressional District race between Jared Golden and Austin Theriault she said she had no answer. In previous elections the candidates didn’t fight dirty with each other, she noted when asked how elections had changed over the years. “They were civil with each other,” she added.

Cote said about 4,800 votes were cast in 2020 and about 4,500 in 2016. “It is always right around there,” he added.

A form created by Bangor Daily News with boxes to write in the votes for each candidate was used by Farmington Town Clerk Diane Dunham to submit election results to the media. On Wednesday morning, The Franklin Journal called to verify the votes cast for Jason Cherry in the U.S. Senate race as the number listed was difficult to read. Dunham said the number given was incorrect and she would be recalculating it.

“The tape prints off first choice, second choice,” she said. “I gave [Cherry] some credit he didn’t deserve. The total is not right, something wasn’t coming out right last night. I don’t really know what happened, that number definitely is not right. I am not really sure how we came up with that number.”

In the presidential race, Kamala Harris received the most votes with 2,185 while Donald Trump received 1,657, Jill Stein 55, Chase Oliver 26 and Cornel West 24. In the U.S. Senate race, Angus King received 989 votes, Demi Kouzounas 774, David Costello 593 and Jason Cherry 120.

For county commissioner, Fenwick Fowler received 1,698 votes and Erik Johnson 1,189. In uncontested races Heidi Jordan received 3,106 votes for Register of Probate and Scott Nichols, Sr. tallied 3,122 for sheriff.

In the state representative District 75 race, Stephan Bunker received 2,010 votes and Randall Gauvin 1,737. In the state senate District 5 race, Russell Black garnered 2,655 votes and Kathleen O’Donnell 1,716.

For U.S. Congress District 2, Jared Golden tallied 2,365 votes and Austin Theriault 1,475.

In the referendum questions, voters opposed limiting contributions to certain political committees 2,820 to 957. The three bond questions also failed: research and development by a vote of 2,164 to 1,621, historic building restoration 2,152 to 1,658 and trails 2,295 to 1,489. Changing the state flag passed with a vote of 2,114 to 1,716.

Dunham said the number of new voters who registered Tuesday was not available yet.