With a little over a week until Election Day, a number of voters have requested absentee ballots, and many have returned them. Maine doesn’t have early voting, but voters have increasingly used the absentee ballot system to make their picks in advance.

Penbaypilot.com contacted some town offices and city halls in Waldo and Knox Counties to see what kinds of numbers clerks were seeing this year. Many of those we talked to said the rates of absentee voting this year were in line with the last gubernatorial election in 2010.

They were also quick to point out that the number of registered voters and absentee ballots is constantly changing. These figures were reported between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24:
 

Belfast

Absentee voting - 509 ballots requested; 313 returned

Total registered voters - 5,014

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 - 3,117*
 

Camden

Absentee voting - 650 ballots requested, roughly half have been returned. “It's high but we were expecting high. I think were about where the state projected we be this year,” said Town Clerk Katrina Oakes.

Total registered voters - roughly 4,000

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 - 68-percent (roughly 2,700)  Oakes said the state is projecting 75-percent turnout this year. In her experience around 25-percent of votes have come in the form of absentee ballots.

Hope 

Absentee voting - 129 ballots issued; 82 returned.

Total registered voters - 1,142

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 - 817 (69-percent at the time)

Lincolnville 

Absentee voting - 206 ballots issued; 122 returned and accepted. "I had a couple I had to reject if they didn't have a signature on the back," said Town Clerk Karen Secotte. When that happens, she said, she calls the voter so that they can still cast a ballot.

Total registered voters - 1,801

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 - 1,211 (71-percent at the time)

Rockland 

Absentee voting - roughly 525 ballots requested, roughly 350 have been returned.

Total registered voters - 4,800

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 -  2,827  City Clerk Stuart Sylvester said the number of absentee ballots in play this year is similar to 2010.

Rockport 

Absentee voting - 348 ballots issued, 196 returned.

Total registered voters - 2,569

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 - 1,815 (69-percent at the time)

"Its interesting to see the difference. It trends," said Town Clerk Linda Greenlaw. Asked how it was shaping up this year, Greenlaw said based on the 598 absentee ballots cast in 2010, it would be close. "I think it's going to be a little less,” she said. “Hopefully we'll have more people come out to the polls."

Winterport 

Absentee voting - More than 200 ballots issued; the number returned was not immediately available. Asked if the numbers were comparable to 2010, Town Clerk Deborah Hoover was quick to say it wasn’t "No. It's more than what I normally see," she said.

Total registered - 2,997

Voter turnout in Nov. 2010 - 1,772*