SANFORD –– Polls opened statewide Tuesday morning, with residents lining up to cast their ballots in local, state and national primaries and elections.
In Sanford, polls opened at 7 a.m. sharp at Sanford High School, with a short line of about a dozen local residents waiting to get in.
“It’s democracy,” said resident Ricky Mailhot, 40. “It’s exciting, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Several primary races are on the ballot this year, including the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, along with primary races for both parties in the gubernatorial race. Mailhot said he was eager to participate in the primary voting.
“We’re deciding who we ultimately get to vote for,” he said. “It’s like the final vetting process.”
Along with the state and national primaries, voters will also decide some local races. The June 9 election day is also the traditional day for voters to decide on school budgets.
Inside the gymnasium Tuesday morning, workers were smiling and friendly as the voters filed in. Sanford City Clerk said “up to 60” workers will rotate through the polls during the day.
“I’ve got a good crew, and they all enjoy doing this,” she said.
Cote said there are 14,700 registered voters, and she hoped to see a 30% turnout.
Voters in the primaries will cast ballots using ranked-choice voting. Cote said only the first-choice votes are tallied at the local level, and exactly how long it takes to tally statewide depends largely on how things go. If a candidate gets 51% of the vote, she said, the counting stops and the winner declared.
If the race remains close, Cote said, it could take as much as a week or even longer to determine the results.
“Fingers crossed, you know, it won’t take that long, but we don’t want to rush through anything and get improper results,” she said. “We are very sticklers for our information, if you will.”
Polls will remain open statewide until 8 p.m. tonight.
