AUGUSTA — Ryan Dumont gets the right to vote on his birthday, and it’s a right he plans to exercise.
The Cony senior who turns 18 on Election Day has already registered to vote and plans to join the thousands of voters deciding local, state and national races. In Augusta, that includes a tightly contested race for mayor, weighing in on referendum questions including whether the school superintendent should be required to live in the city and whether the city should borrow $3.6 million to build a fire station and $1 million to buy a new fire ladder truck.
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“It is pretty exciting. I’ve always been really into politics, and now I can finally put my voice in and do something about it,” Dumont said. “I feel generations previous to mine fought for the right to vote, for representation, so we should use the opportunity we have, because it could be taken away.”
Voters statewide head to the polls Tuesday to decide a hotly contested race for governor between Republican Gov. Paul LePage, Democrat U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler.
Barbara Wardwell, city clerk in Augusta, said the city had about 2,000 residents vote absentee, which she said is more than it usually gets in a gubernatorial election. She said in a presidential election year, the city gets around 2,500 absentee voters.
Residents, even first-time voters like Dumont, can register and vote at their polling place the day of the election.
Dumont, however, already registered last week, so he’ll be ready to vote when he turns 18 Tuesday. He said voter apathy is a problem, and if people don’t vote, they have no right to complain about the results of elections.
Statewide, voters will also elect state legislators and cast votes for or against a handful of state bond issues and a referendum which could eliminate hunting bears using dogs, bait or traps.
Local races include the Augusta mayoral race pitting David Rollins, a current at-large city councilor, against William E. Dowling, a former mayor and city councilor, who are both on the ballot, and write-in mayoral candidate Michael Byron, who is currently the Ward 1 city councilor.
There is a three-way race for Byron’s Ward 1 council seat, pitting former councilors Stanley Koski and Mary Mayo-Wescott against Linda Conti, a Planning Board member.
In Gardiner, incumbent Mayor Thomas Harnett faces a challenge from former councilor George Trask, and six candidates are competing for three open city council seats.
There are also contested races for Hallowell City Council and Winthrop Town Council to be decided Tuesday.
Dumont said his polling place is Augusta City Center, where he’ll vote Tuesday. Cony High School, which Dumont attends and lives near, is also a polling place, but not his. Cony is the Ward 4 polling place, while Ward 2 voters, Dumont included, vote at City Center.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in all four of the city’s voting wards.
Ward 3 residents vote at the Augusta Civic Center while Ward 1 residents, who will decide a three-way race to represent their ward on the City Council, vote at the Augusta State Armory.
On Monday, there were concerns about the armory parking lot because of ongoing construction.
The project manager on the parking lot project said they had planned to pave the upper parking lot and finish grading the lower parking lot on Monday, but the recent rain and snow made paving impossible.
Adam Lake, of C.H. Stevenson, the Wayne-based contractor doing the parking lot work at the armory, said crews would work to dry and block off a large puddle that covers much of the entrance to the lower parking lot. While some of it will be on dirt, not pavement, there should be plenty of space to park at the armory on Election Day.
“We will make our best effort to get rid of as much of that puddle as we can,” Lake said. “There’s probably room for 100 cars in here. There will be plenty of room to get in and out and plenty of space to park, though not everyone may be able to park on the pavement.”
There are two smaller paved places to park on both sides of the armory, with between 30 and 40 spaces each, but the main parking lot is currently dirt, though Lake said the dirt is hard-packed gravel and should hold up to vehicle traffic and parking Tuesday.
Wardwell said she has been assured there will be adequate parking. She said between voters and poll workers, the city needs about 80 parking spaces at each ward polling place.
“I expect everything to be OK” at the armory, Wardwell said. “There won’t be 60 people there voting at the same time. I’m sure we’ll have sufficient parking.”
All the talk and anticipation of Election Day has former Augusta barber and de facto political pollster Marshall “Duke” Dulac missing the days when the poll at his former barber shop, Duke’s Rotary Barbershop, would poll up to 450 people. He stopped doing the annual political poll when he closed his barbershop a few years ago.
“We were right 95 percent of the time,” Dulac said of the barbershop poll’s success rate at predicting electoral winners. “People said we put professional pollsters out of business. I miss it. It was fun. All walks of life came into the shop.”
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @kedwardskj
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