AUGUSTA, Maine — Voter turnout looked low across Maine on Tuesday during a set of primary elections that will decide the party candidates for three of the state’s four congressional seats and all 186 legislative districts.
The action is centered on the 2nd Congressional District. Republicans are choosing between freshman state Reps. Austin Theriault of Fort Kent and Mike Soboleski of Phillips as their nominee to take on U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from a conservative-leaning district that has twice been won by former President Donald Trump.
Theriault has Trump’s endorsement and has used national connections from his time as a NASCAR driver to raise 10 times more money than Soboleski. But the underdog candidate has scored more endorsements from legislative colleagues and has a grassroots following.
Despite those stakes, voter interest has been low in the 2nd District. Fewer than 4,100 Republicans there requested absentee ballots as of Monday, which is only 2.5 percent of the party members who were registered in the district as of March. Across both parties, absentee voting was trending slightly higher than the March presidential primaries in Maine.
In Bangor, only 216 voters showed up at the city’s unified polling place at the Cross Insurance Center as of 10 a.m., according to Cathy Lemin, an election warden. That was on top of 589 voters who requested absentee ballots in a city with nearly 19,000 registered voters.
Turnout was also low in southern Maine, where Secretary of State Shenna Bellows began the day touring polling stations. Emily Cook, a Bellows spokesperson, said Gorham was seeing faster-paced voting than Portland due to a bigger slate of local elections. School budget referendums are on the ballot in most cities and towns on Tuesday.
At polling stations, Republican voters cited a mix of national and local factors in their decisions on the 2nd District. Trump’s endorsement was a major factor for Theriault voters, while supporters of Soboleski, a 67-year-old with a varied history as a Marine, actor and businessman were more likely to cite his background.
“He’s straightforward, and I think he’s going to do a good job,” Donald Deprey, a 74-year-old retiree from Fort Kent, said of Theriault.
In Bangor, 74-year-old retiree Cass Bartlett placed the southern border and illegal immigration at the top of list of concerns ahead of the election and said he was backing Soboleski.
“I think he’ll work for the people,” Bartlett said. “I want the people to decide things. I hate the way the government has gone.”
Democrats were turning out for a mix of mostly uncontested primaries and local elections. Ben Bigney, a 45-year-old social worker from Bangor, said he worried about President Joe Biden’s unpopularity and said he was a one-issue voter this year for “protecting our democracy.”
“My hope is that as many or more people who voted in 2020 vote in November,” he said. “I hope people decide to be active participants in our democracy.”
BDN writers Kathleen O’Brien and Chris Bouchard contributed to this report.
