2 weeks Ago
Kim Sorensen waits to cast her ballot at the South Portland Community Center on Tuesday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer SOUTH PORTLAND — Kim Sorensen stood in the line for people whose last names began with the letters P through Z. Several dozen people were in front of her, and she had already been waiting for 20 minutes.
Some people near Sorensen wondered aloud why their line was so long, when the other three lines – all designated for other letters of the alphabet – only had a handful of voters waiting. “It doesn’t bother me to wait. It’s too important to be here and vote today,” said Sorensen, 65, who works in sales and is a registered Democrat.
“I feel like we’re going to go back 40 or 50 years (if Trump wins), and we need to move forward. Abortion has already been taken away from us.” Sorensen ended up waiting a little less than an hour to complete the voting process, finishing up around 10:30 a.
m. She voted for Kamala Harris for president. Determination and eagerness were prevailing moods among voters Tuesday morning at the South Portland Community Center, the designated polling place for some 9,000 city residents.
Like Sorensen, several talked about how they were determined to vote today, and how the presidential election especially was motivating them. People wait in long lines to scan their ballots after voting at the South Portland Community Center on Tuesday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer The eagerness could be seen first in the early-morning darkness, when voters began showing up before 6 a.
m., even though the polls opened at 7 a.m.
, said Jon Hartford, warden for the city’s District 4. Though some went home, there was still a line when the polls did open. “This turnout looks closer to what we had in 2016,” said Hartford, seconds after helping a young man with his ballot.
“It’s exciting to see.” By 8:30 a.m.
, some 450 people had voted and hundreds stood in lines that snaked from the ballot boxes, around the voting booths, through the gymnasium, into a hallway and ended in a room normally used for bingo games. Both parking lots were filled and a dozen or more cars were double-parked. The eagerness could also be seen at the voter registration table, where hundreds of people had registered in the first couple of hours Tuesday, said John McCall, a retired minister and one of volunteers helping people register.
McCall, sitting with two other volunteers at a long table near the gymnasium door, said some were first-time voters, while others were people who have recently moved. He and the other volunteers said the majority of people did not register with a party. Volunteer John McCall registers a voter at the South Portland Community Center on Tuesday.
Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer Emmerson Madsen, 20, came to the community center Tuesday to vote in their first presidential election. Madsen, a media studies student at Southern Maine Community College, said LGBTQ+ rights and civil rights were the issues primarily motivating them to the polls. They registered as a Democrat and voted for Harris.
“It’s exciting but also a little weird, because it’s such a big deal,” Madsen said of voting for president for the first time. Voting was stopped for about 20 minutes around 11 a.m.
when South Portland police locked down the community center after a threat was made against South Portland High School. The school, which is across the street, was locked down as well. Similar threats – which police said were likely hoaxes – were made against at least seven other Maine schools Tuesday morning .
Hundreds of people had been waiting in line at the community center just before the lockdown. For 20 minutes, no one could leave or enter the building, and police blocked off nearby streets. People wait in the lobby of the South Portland Community Center on Tuesday after the building was placed on lockdown by South Portland police.
Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer People were generally calm when told of the lockdown, especially when people passed along information from police that the threat was likely part of a hoax. Some people were worried that they would miss appointments or be late getting back to work. “Mostly people were very calm, and part of that was the great work of the poll workers and police,” said Hartford, 42, who works as a government consultant.
In the gym, where people voted, there were also volunteers gathering signatures for various causes. One was the gun violence prevention group Safe Schools Safe Communities, while another was opposing the proposed Yard South residential development near Bug Light Park. Carl Dimow, 73, a musician and music teacher, came to the polls around 10:30 a.
m. and said he was glad to see such a large turnout. A registered Democrat who voted for Harris, Dimow said the presidential race was the most important part of election day for him.
“I’m very concerned with Trump getting back in the White House. I feel like he’s pushing to make the U.S.
a less democratic country,” Dimow said. Carl Dimow signs a petition after voting at the South Portland Community Center on Tuesday. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer We invite you to add your comments.
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