Freeport voters will decide on two proposed charter amendments that would make it easier to sign petitions to nominate municipal candidates and get citizen initiatives on the town ballot.

Also on the Nov. 8 municipal ballot are uncontested races for seats on the Town Council and Regional School Unit 5 Board of Directors.

Both charter amendments were proposed by the town. Question 1 would remove a requirement that petitions for a municipal referendum have to be signed in the presence of the town clerk. This would allow petitions to be circulated freely in town and bring the charter in line with state law, according to Town Clerk Christine Wolfe.

The proposal was on the ballot in June, and 83 percent of voters approved the change. But the amendment failed to pass because turnout was less than 30 percent of voters who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election – the threshold needed to change the town charter.

Town officials hope turnout for the presidential election will be high enough to reach that threshold.

Question 2 asks voters if they want to eliminate a section of the charter that prohibits voters from signing more than one nominating petition for each elected office. To run for at-large seats on the Town Council and RSU 5 school board, candidates must get signatures from 100 qualified voters. Candidates for council seats representing the town’s four districts need to get 50 signatures of qualified voters from those districts.

But, as the charter is written, voters who sign two petitions have their signature voided on all but the first petition filed with the town clerk.

“If we ran consistent with state law, a person could sign an unlimited number of nomination papers,” Wolfe said. Of the 10 towns around Freeport, only Brunswick has the same limitation, Wolfe said in a memo.

Most Freeport municipal elections in November are uncontested. Council Vice Chairman David Gleeson, who represents District 1, is running for another three-year term. John Egan is running for a three-year term as an at-large councilor. Valeria Steverlynck and Sarah Woodard are running for three-year terms on the RSU 5 school board.

The only contested election is a three-way race for the Freeport Sewer District Board of Trustees. Incumbent Thomas Hudak is competing against Earle Rowe Jr. and Timothy Whitacre for two three-year seats.