Absentee voting kicked off this month in advance of the June 9 statewide primaries and municipal elections, many of which include school budget referendums. 

In many Maine communities, absentee ballots were available before budgets received final approval by the local governing body. That means some voters theoretically could have cast ballots on something that had not yet been finalized.

How can that be?

Since 2007, residents across Maine have voted to approve or reject school budgets via referendum. Based on municipal budget cycles, those votes often align with statewide primaries in June, and clerks choose to send both state and local absentee ballots at the same time for convenience. State law requires that absentee ballots be available 30 days before an election.

Another statute long said that final approval of school budgets by local boards or councils must be held no more than 30 days prior to the referendum, although that was increased to 45 days in 2023.

Nevertheless, in many cases ballots are printed and sent before the town or city council has finalized the budget — sometimes weeks before, in the case of municipalities like Yarmouth that won’t give final approval until a town meeting in early June.

Or in Portland, where absentee voting began May 11, but the City Council did not take its final vote on the budget until Monday night, May 18, seven days later. 

So, why does this matter?

According to state law, absentee ballots may not be counted or processed by a clerk unless “received on the day after the conclusion of the regional school unit budget meeting,” meaning the town or city council meeting where the final vote on the budget takes place. 

Any ballot envelopes received before that point “must be marked ‘rejected’ by the municipal clerk.”

But it’s not clear that every town is interpreting the law that way. In Portland’s case, they weren’t. And several clerks said they communicate frequently with voters who find the process puzzling and difficult to navigate.

VARYING INTERPRETATIONS

In a May 7 news release, Portland told voters the City Council would not take its final vote on the school budget until May 18 and that they “may choose to vote in advance” or take their ballot home and return it after the vote.

City Clerk Abbey Lombard said her office is not allowed to process any absentee ballots until seven days prior to the election, and that the procedure has been in place for a long time, so most voters understand it. In response to a question about whether Portland rejects ballots returned before the City Council vote, Lombard said the language in the statute “does not reference a City Council vote.”

However, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education said Thursday that the phrase “regional school unit budget meeting” in statute refers to the final budget meeting of the local legislative body, “regardless of (the school administration unit) organization.”

That’s also not how the membership organization for local governmental entities in Maine interprets the law.

“If the ballot is submitted, the envelope comes in, and if there is a vote on school budget, and whomever has the final say hasn’t made their decision yet, it’s a rejected ballot,” said Kate Dufour, director of advocacy and communications at the Maine Municipal Association. 

After this story was originally published online, a Portland city spokesperson said that the Press Herald’s questions had prompted the city to research its process and compliance with state statute. Now, the city will reject approximately 650 absentee ballots that were returned before the City Council approved the school budget, and send new absentee ballots back to voters.

“In the past we had included a notice with absentee ballots that let voters know not to submit their ballots until after the final vote on the school budget is taken,” spokesperson Jessica Grondin said. “Unfortunately, we did not include that notice this year, but plan to do so in the future.”

In Yarmouth, Clerk Lisa Grant puts a blue-and-red stamp on every absentee envelope that tells voters: “Do not return prior to June 3.” Any ballots returned prior to that date, including those dropped in a drop box, are rejected. Grant said she rejects a handful every year.

Scarborough’s town council didn’t take its final budget vote until Wednesday, May 20. Town Clerk Kristen Barth included a yellow piece of paper in each absentee ballot envelope with explicit instructions on when to return ballots.

“If you return your School Budget Validation Referendum Ballot prior to the Town Council vote on May 20th your vote will not be counted,” it reads. “We want your vote to count, so please return your Ballot on or after Thursday, May 21st.”

Like Grant, Barth rejects a handful every year and said she and the city manager have talked about moving up the budget timeline in future years to avoid the confusion. 

Some communities, including South Portland and Cumberland, coordinate schedules to make sure that ballots don’t go out at all until after the final council vote is complete.

In Falmouth, Clerk Ellen Planer said she doesn’t start processing any ballots until the day after the Town Council meeting. Her staff doesn’t open any envelopes, and doesn’t consider the ballots “received” until they open them.

“I don’t want to reject anybody’s ballot,” she said. “I want everyone to be able to vote.”

Most communities print their school budget question on a separate ballot from other local questions, so if they have to reject it, the other ballots are still valid.

AN INFORMED OPINION

State Sen. James Libby, R-Standish, posted about the Gorham ballot on social media. A voter had shared it with him and was “disgusted.”

Gorham has been voting by referendum for more than 40 years, long before it was required by state law, Superintendent Heather Perry said. The district had a few contentious budget years in the late ’80s and decided to get the community more involved in the budget process. 

The town includes the date of the final meeting on its ballot — this year it was May 12 — for a simple reason: so that voters can be informed.

“I would read the question, discover that the date is in the future, and perhaps not vote at that moment in time, if I wanted to have an informed opinion about what the final budget was,” Perry said. 

Just because you receive an absentee ballot early does not mean you need to fill it out right away, she said.