Efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to sow doubt about the validity of the upcoming election, while continuing to falsely claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Republicans, do not appear to be taking root in Maine.

Election officials, including those in Republican areas, say voters trust that Maine’s elections are free and fair because they are run by local towns and by people well known in the community. Voters here also use what’s considered the gold standard of elections: paper ballots and tabulators that do not connect to the internet.

Absentee ballots are carefully regulated and tracked to prevent ballot stuffing. And all voting activity is logged into a central voting system, making it easy for election officials, political parties and candidates to identify any possible fraud, which has either been rare or nonexistent.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Maine’s historically high turnout rates are proof of voter confidence. David Sharp/Associated Press

Municipalities also strive to have each party represented on election staff. Political parties, as well as activists, also commonly send representatives to observe voting at polling locations on Election Day to ensure all eligible voters are allowed to cast ballots. Such poll-watching activities are tightly regulated by the state and cannot interfere with the election process or intimidate voters.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Maine’s historically high turnout rates are proof of voter confidence.

“Our experience in Maine is we have very high levels of voter participation,” she said. “Generally, high levels of voter participation are linked to high levels of voter confidence in the integrity of our elections.”

In other states, though, things have been anything but smooth.

Suspicious packages were mailed to election officials in several states this week, likely as an intimidation tactic. In Georgia, the state election board voted Friday to force counties to hand-count all ballots on Election Day, which could cause delays.

And it doesn’t mean Maine hasn’t seen efforts to spread the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump or that 2024 could be problematic – they just haven’t gained traction.

Rep. Heidi Sampson, R-Alfred, was among three Republican lawmakers who signed a letter calling for a national audit of the 2020 election results, based on unfounded allegations of widespread fraud. Sampson also tried unsuccessfully to persuade lawmakers to grant access to Maine’s voting records and systems to two people involved in a similar forensic audit in Arizona.

In the Down East town of Ellsworth, a group of Republicans have been trying to spread election disinformation and develop a plan for this fall.

Over the last couple years, Constitution Hall, which is run by John Linnehan, who has run unsuccessfully for state representative and senator, has held a series of forums with Douglas Frank, who has said people refer to him as the “Johnny Appleseed of election disinformation.” But turnout at those events has been sparse and officials do not appear to be taking it very seriously.

Joel Stetkis, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, said in an interview that he has total confidence in Maine’s election system and is not aware of any widespread concerns about a rigged election here, whether it’s over concerns of voting tabulators being hacked (again, Maine’s machines don’t connect to the internet) or noncitizens voting en masse (for which there is no evidence and would be cause for deportation.)

“I’m not hearing a lot of that,” said Stetkis, whose wife is a town clerk and election official in Canaan. “There may be some folks on the fringe who may still be talking about those sorts of things. The thing that’s happening on the ground is just checks and balances, making sure things are done lawfully and legally and by the book.”

One of those measures is a novel request from Republicans to observe election workers as they test the accuracy of voting tabulators this year. The party wants to observe workers in the college towns of Orono and Lewiston, as well as others. Lewiston also has a relatively large immigrant population, at least by Maine standards.

Bellows said it’s the first time any town clerk can recall such a request being made. She has advised clerks to allow people to observe the process from behind a guardrail, as long as they do not interfere, or touch the machines or test ballots.

Lewiston City Clerk Kathleen Montejo said she plans to invite Democrats and the media when they test their tabulators in mid-October by counting a stack of 10-15 marked test ballots. The goal of the test is to ensure the vote count is accurate and identify any mechanical issues inside the machine so repairs can be made before in-person voting begins.

“We have not received this request from them before as I can recall,” Montejo said. “We are happy to have folks observe the testing of the machines, (because) we want the public to have confidence in the machine tabulations and therefore the quality of the election results.”

DISTRUST TAKING ROOT ELSEWHERE

Although Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud have been thrown out of courts across the country, the former president’s attacks seem to be penetrating the public consciousness and increasing distrust in elections and governmental institutions, including among some Democrats.

A national survey by the nonpartisan World Justice Project released last week found an erosion of public confidence in American institutions since 2020. It found that two-thirds of people surveyed said they’d consider the 2024 election results illegitimate if their candidate lost. Distrust was highest among Republicans at 46%, but more than a quarter of Democrats (27%) shared that view.

There hasn’t been any recent public polling in Maine about voter confidence in elections.

A poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center in 2022 found that 83% of the 712 people surveyed were either very confident (65%) or somewhat confident (18%) that their general election vote was accurately counted. Of those remaining, 11% were not very confident and 5% were not confident at all.  Distrust was highest among Republicans, with only 63% at least somewhat confident, compared with 99% of Democrats and 79% of independents.

Stetkis said Republicans are working overtime to promote absentee and early voting – something that was central to Trump’s claim of a stolen election. In several states, he held a small lead after the in-person votes were counted but lost after all of the absentee ballots, used heavily by Democrats during the pandemic, were counted.

“Our biggest push right now is to give voters the confidence that their vote is going to be counted,” Stetkis said. “Early voting – that’s being promoted from the bottom of the ticket to the top of the ticket.”

Joel Stetkis, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, said in an interview that he has total confidence in Maine’s election system. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal, file

Republicans harshly criticized Bellows earlier this year when she was considering Trump’s eligibility in Maine. They accused her of election interference when she ruled that Trump was ineligible because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol – a decision that prompted threats against Bellows and her staff and was later overturned by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a separate but similar case.

Yet despite those past criticisms, Stetkis remains confident in Maine’s elections, since voting is run by local towns, rather than centralized by county or by the state. Maine also has strong laws and election rules, he said.

“So many of these things are in law so the secretary of state can’t adjust it on their own,” Stetkis said.

The Maine Democratic Party also expressed support for Maine’s election workers, saying state elections were “safe, secure, fair and accurate.”

Party officials criticized Trump for continuing to deny the 2020 election result and raise questions about this fall’s race.

“As Vice President Harris said at the debate last week, Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people and clearly he’s still having trouble processing that,” Executive Director Tim Grouse said in a written statement. “He continues to double down on lies about the 2020 election results and refuses to say he’ll accept the results of the 2024 election.” 

Both parties plan to have poll watchers, though their footprint is not entirely clear.

Democracy Maine, a collaboration between the League of Women Voters of Maine, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections and Maine Students Vote, has been monitoring polling locations on Election Day across the state since 2020. Each year, it has published a report of its findings.

“In postelection reports, we have found zero disruptions of any kind at the polling locations we’ve observed,” said Al Cleveland, who runs the election observation program. “This year we will be observing hundreds of polling locations across the state to make sure the election is safe, secure and accessible.”

Cleveland expects volunteer poll watchers will be present in each county, prioritizing towns with relatively low voter turnout or new election clerks.

“It’s important to make sure we’ve got eyes on those locations,” Cleveland said.

LOCAL CLERKS EDUCATE, PREPARE FOR THE WORST

Political unease at the national level is bound to generate some concerns locally, said Tracey O’Roak, president of the Maine Town and City Clerks’ Association and town clerk in Kennebunkport. But she said it’s also possible that Maine voters aren’t as concerned as voters in some other states because of transparency around the process here.

“As clerks, we do our best to educate voters about the election process in Maine, as every state varies in how elections are administered,” O’Roak said in an email.

The secretary of state’s office provides guidance and training for local election officials about how to de-escalate any potential conflicts on Election Day. And state election officers participated in a nation tabletop training with the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency and the National Association of Secretaries of State about planning for the unexpected situations that may arise on Election Day.

Bellows said the training focused on how to respond to “worst-case scenarios.” She declined to provide any examples, other than dealing with a storm or power outage, because of security concerns.

A 2023 news release about the training said, “the annual exercise gives participants the opportunity to share practices around cyber and physical incident planning, preparedness, identification, response, and recovery,” including “the sharing of information and intelligence through multiple channels, promoting rigorous safeguarding of equipment and systems, ongoing assessments to identify risks and vulnerabilities.”

Several town and city clerks around the state said they haven’t heard concerns about the security or integrity of the election.

“We really haven’t heard anything recently about security or people questioning things,” said Patti Dubois, city clerk in Waterville.

Dubois said voters may get frustrated if they don’t understand the law, which varies from state to state. Some states don’t allow for the processing of absentee ballots prior to Election Day, for example, which can mean it takes longer to get final results and can generate questions, Dubois said.

“I think it’s just a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge in various states that can make people question things,” Dubois said. “And then, of course, social media magnifies misinformation and disinformation.”

In Maine, absentee ballots must be returned in an envelope provided by the state. Each envelope is unique to the voter and must be signed. People can track the status of their absentee ballots online.

Communities can open absentee ballots and begin loading them into ballot boxes or tabulators up to seven days before the election, but those ballots cannot be counted until polls close on Election Day. If communities begin processing absentee ballots early, public notice must be provided, so the public and political parties can observe.

Since Maine uses ranked choice voting for federal offices, it could be days before a winner of the 2nd Congressional District or the U.S. Senate races are known. Ranked choice voting may also determine which presidential candidate receives an important electoral vote for president.

Maine is one of two states, along with Nebraska, that don’t use a winner-take-all system. Maine awards one electoral vote to the winner of each of its two congressional districts and two to the statewide winner. Trump has carried the 2nd District in the last two elections, and there is one electoral scenario in which Trump would need to hold that vote to win the presidency.

Mary Chapman, town clerk in Standish, where Republicans have an enrollment advantage over Democrats and independents, said she hasn’t heard from people worried about the integrity of the election.

“We often do early processing (of absentee ballots) and that’s an open process,” Chapman said. “We notify all the party chairs that they are welcome to come watch. I think Maine in general has a pretty good process to tabulate the results.”

No concerns have been reported in Turner, a small Androscoggin town of about 6,000 residents where Republicans outnumber other political parties.

“We’ve been fortunate here and haven’t had that,” Town Clerk Becky Allaire said. “Everybody pretty much knows everybody,” which she believes keeps distrust at bay.

In Westbrook, City Clerk Angela Holmes said she hasn’t heard any concerns about the integrity of the election – at least not yet.

“I will say that anytime there’s a larger election, sometimes that language does come up,” Holmes said. “I haven’t heard it yet, but we don’t have ballots out yet and are just taking requests for absentee ballots. If and when it does come up, I can’t speak to what happens in the rest of the nation, but in Maine we have so many checks and balances.”