Topsham residents vote at the Topsham Fairgrounds Tuesday Darcie Moore / The Times Record
TOPSHAM — Election results were slow to be revealed in most towns in The Times Record readership area as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.
That includes the vote on Maine School Administrative District 75’s proposed $46 million budget in the towns of Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham. Voters in Bowdoin did approve the budget by a vote of 418 to 146.
There were also still no results yet in Lisbon, where residents were voting on a $17.6 million budget. Bowdoinham also didn’t have the results for their proposed $2.18 million municipal budget. Voters there faced a 37-question town meeting ballot that replaced the town’s June annual town meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While towns like Brunswick and Topsham reported low voter turnout at the polls, they had a high number of absentee ballots. It was still unclear Tuesday evening if this was delaying results in some communities.
Fran Smith, Brunswick’s town clerk, said about 900 people had voted at the Brunswick Junior High School by about 4 p.m. Tuesday. That’s a low turnout, but overall she expected one of the highest if not the highest voter turnout for a primary election. The town received a request for about 5,400 absentee ballots.
There were about 2,100 requests for absentee ballots in Topsham, the highest number since the 2016 presidential election according to Deputy Town Clerk Tyler Washburn.
Town clerks and the Secretary of State’s Office promoted absentee ballot voting for this election to help cut down on exposure to the coronavirus.
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