There’s an election in Maine on Tuesday, but if you’re reading this, you probably already know a fair amount about it from the coverage in this newspaper.
Your friends and neighbors, if they get their news from only the television, may know all about the elections in Wisconsin and in Egypt, but they very well may not know about what’s going on right here in our home.
That’s why you have two important jobs on Tuesday: to get to the polls and vote, and to remind your neighbors and co-workers that they should vote, too.
One of the things my colleagues in political science like to stress is that the most important decisions are not always the ones that attract the most attention. Even the most disengaged citizens know that there are national elections in November, but many voters don’t attend sufficiently to the importance of getting to choose who will be on the ballot.
Perhaps you’re a strong partisan and think the November election should offer voters the chance to vote for someone as far to the right (or left) as you. Or maybe you don’t like extreme partisans and want our next U.S. senator to be near the center.
The party primaries give you the chance to weigh in on that important decision. Don’t be one of those people who complains in November that they don’t like any of the candidates. Be one of the people who decides who gets on the ballot.
Statewide, both Republicans and Democrats have a range of choices, because candidates are drawn to open Senate seats like bees to honey. On the Democratic side, there are four candidates: Maine Sen. Cynthia Dill, former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, Maine Rep. Jon Hinck and businessman Benjamin Pollard.
Republicans have the chance to choose among six candidates: former Maine Senate President Rick Bennett, small businessman Scott D’Amboise, Maine Senate Assistant Majority Leader Debra Plowman, Maine State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin, Maine Attorney General Bill Schneider and Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers.
In Waterville, and elsewhere in the new 1st District, we have some additional choices to make that will shape the November elections. Republicans decide who will challenge Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingrie. Democrats in Maine Senate District 25, including Waterville, will decide who will take on Republican incumbent Tom Martin.
You have to be enrolled in a political party to vote in the partisan primaries, but Maine makes it easy to register. All you have to do is check the appropriate box on a voter registration card. You won’t be required to pay dues, or go to meetings, or put up yard signs.
Your party affiliation will be indicated on the voter rolls, which are publicly available information, so activists from your party may try to contact you by phone or by mail; but whether you want to get involved is totally up to you.
If you’re registering to vote for the first time at your current residence in Maine, you can join one of the parties on primary day and vote.
If you’re “unenrolled” — not signed up for any party and thus not eligible to vote in any primary — it’s too late for you this time: Maine law provides that you have to enroll more than 15 days before the primary election.
All Waterville voters, including the unenrolled, have an important decision to make on Tuesday: whether to accept or reject the school budget. Because of decreasing state funding for local education, it was a difficult year. The district faced a shortfall of nearly $2 million, and most of the shortfall has been met by cutting the school district budget, though the school district has asked the city to increase its contribution by $605,000.
I hate taxes as much as anyone, but I’ll vote to approve the school budget. More than 12 positions already have been eliminated across all the district schools. These cuts have led to the departures of some teachers who have had the most positive impact on my children’s education, and I’d hate to see more programming cut and more good teachers forced out.
As a reader of this newspaper, you may know all this already, but remind your friends and neighbors. Urge them to support your favorite candidates and to support the school budget. And while you’re at it, tell them they could have learned all about Tuesday’s election if they subscribed to their local newspaper.
Joseph R. Reisert is associate professor of American constitutional law and chairman of the department of government at Colby College in Waterville.
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