Augusta might be the latest municipality to delay its June election.
Councilors will consider moving the June election to July 14, the date state primrary elections have been rescheduled, due to concerns having it too soon could force residents to risk exposure to the coronavirus to cast their vote.
The delay also could provide more time for potential candidates for a vacant Augusta Board of Education seat to collect signatures on nomination petitions. That is something one potential candidate said they weren’t able to do by the original deadline, in part due to the logistics of gathering signatures from residents while under state orders to maintain safe social distances from others.
At a discussion of the issue last week, councilors expressed concern having the election in June could put residents and election workers health at risk with the potential exposure to the coronavirus.
“I’d like to avoid what happened with the Wisconsin elections where they had people all lined up and trying to vote amid the coronavirus,” said At-Large Councilor Marci Alexander. “We’re just going to have to be careful for the timing of this, as we end the coronavirus lockdown, because we want to make sure people have a chance to vote, but we also don’t want people to have to put themselves at risk.”
The order councilors are scheduled to consider, which would move the city election from June 9 to July 14, also states nomination papers for the vacant Ward 3 seat on the school board would be available until May 15. Candidates for school board seat must submit nomination papers signed by at least 50 qualified voters to be on the ballot.
Nomination papers were originally due last week. Only one candidate, Jan Michaud, submitted completed papers by that deadline.
However At-Large Councilor Raegan LaRochelle said last week she was contacted by a resident who took out, but did not return, nomination papers seeking the spot. She said the potential candidate, whom she did not identify, ran into trouble getting enough nomination signatures due to the social distancing requirements in effect in Maine. The candidate asked that the filing deadline be extended.
City Manager William Bridgeo considered extending the filing deadline as part of his powers under the currently declared state of emergency, but after polling councilors last week and talking with the city’s attorney, Stephen Langsdorf, he decided against doing so.
He explained in a memo to councilors that he did so for multiple reasons, including that he was reluctant to use that authority for anything not directly related to an issue of health, safety or the well-being of the community, and because the nomination period could be extended anyway if councilors agree to delay the election until July.
Mayor David Rollins said the city should consider holding the next elections by absentee votes only, rather than have people gather at the polls to vote. He said ballots could be mailed to voters who’d then mail their completed ballots back to the city, just like absentee voters do now.
Ward 3 Councilor Michael Michaud expressed concerns an all-absentee ballot could be vulnerable to “being taken advantage of” by someone casting illegal votes.
Bridgeo noted many of the city’s election workers are senior citizens, a group deemed to be especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.
In addition to the school board election to fill the Ward 3 seat vacated when Michael Michaud, who held the spot previously was elected to the City Council, residents in the next Augusta elections will also vote on the proposed school budget.
Other area municipalities are pondering similar election and coronavirus-related questions, including in Dresden where officials recently voted to delay a planned April election until June.
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