Town clerks report a sharp increase in ballot requests and explain how votes are verified, secured and counted ahead of Election Day.
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MOUNT DESERT ISLAND REGION—Well over a thousand potential voters in the Mount Desert Island region have taken out absentee ballots for the upcoming November 3 elections.
The sentinels of secure elections in area towns are town clerks, and this year’s upcoming election is no different.
What is a little different is the number of absentee ballots that have already been turned in and taken out.
“As of this afternoon, the Town of Southwest Harbor has issued 346 civilian voter absentee ballots/early voting requests; 295 have been returned and accepted, and we have 20 UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) requests. Those are processed through at the state level. Twelve of those returned,” said Southwest Harbor Town Clerk Jennifer LaHaye. “We have seen a tremendous increase in requests for absentee ballots, and early voting.”
At the last November 2025 election, Southwest Harbor had roughly 789 voters.
The Town of Southwest Harbor will process all absentee ballots the day of election throughout the day.
“All voted ballots are secure and locked up at all times, along with the tabulators and media is kept separately from the machine. No one has access to this area other than the clerk or their designees,” LaHaye explained.
Statewide the deadline for absentee ballot requests is tomorrow at the close of business day for the municipality.
In Trenton, Administrative Assistant Jamie L. Abbott said on Monday, the town had already had 250.
“I suspect we will have close to 300 by Thursday,” Abbott said. “We have had a lot of people vote absentee this election.”
For comparison, 585 Trenton residents voted in the November 2025 election.
When it comes to security and process, all of Trenton’s absentee ballots are kept in the vault until Election Day where they are processed at the polls.
“Our machines are stored in our conference room and the top of the machine is locked until we open on Election Day,” Abbott said.
According to Bar Harbor Town Clerk Liz Graves, the Maine Secretary of State’s Office regularly publishes the Statewide Absentee Voter List, which lists all absentee ballot requests in the state, reflects when these requests are fulfilled by the appropriate municipality, and indicates if and when ballots are returned.
That list shows that Bar Harbor absentee ballot requests are roughly 1,735 as of Friday.
The total number of Bar Harbor registered voters in November 2025 was 4,633. Voter turn-out was 49.6%. The total number of Bar Harbor ballots cast for state questions in 2025 was 2,307.
“In Maine some towns process absentee ballots ahead of Election Day—taking the ballots out of the envelopes—but we don’t produce results of that batch of ballots until after the polls close on Election Day,” Graves said. “Party representatives or members of the public may ask to inspect the absentee ballots before they’re processed, to check that they have been submitted and accepted in accordance with the law—this follows a specific procedure and timeline. I actively encourage folks to attend early processing if your community does it—it’s a public proceeding, just like Election Day, and it’s pretty cool to see how it works. In the days or weeks between when a ballot is received and accepted by the clerk and early processing, ballots are securely stored in an area to which only the clerk or their designees have access.”
Just like those ballots, Graves said, the tabulators must be stored in an area accessible by no one other than the clerk or their designees.
Graves was also quick to point out the difference between election clerks (also election officials) and election observers (also called poll watchers).
“Election clerks work under the supervision of the clerk and warden and are usually paid by the municipality. Election observers remain outside the guardrail but also have rights protected in Maine law. They are not paid or supervised by the municipality,” Graves said.
The process is similar in Mount Desert.
“The only (thing) I do differently is that I hire sworn seasonal assistant clerks to help me administer absentee voting (only for the bigger elections – i.e. presidential and gubernatorial),” said Town Clerk Claire Woolfolk. “This year I will be using these assistant clerks to do some early processing of the absentee ballots. These ‘staff’ members differ from election clerks/poll workers, so I don’t need to do the party balance, but there are always at least two clerks present at any given time to administer/process absentee ballots.”
Southwest Harbor Town Clerk Jennifer LaHaye said that her town is similar.
“We have some minor differences in relation to processing absentee ballots day of election,” she said.
Woolfolk said that absentee voting in Mount Desert has been consistently increasing.
”Ever since COVID we’ve seen a large number of absentee voting. For this election (one week prior to the election) we’ve received 480 returned ballots, issued nearly 600. If things continue as they have been we will have close to 50% of our active voters vote absentee. We currently have more than 1/3 of our active voters having requested absentee ballots,” Woolfolk said.
In Mount Desert in 2025 there were roughly 1,797 registered voters and 930 of them cast votes in the referendum in November 2025. The 480 returned ballots this election is more than half the number of voters in November last year.
The first step in the process is verification, Woolfolk said.
“Once we verify that the Absentee Ballot Envelope is returned properly (signed, sealed, Aid Signature/Witness certificate completed if applicable) and that ballot is OK to cast, we log it into the State’s Central Voter Registration system (CVR), file it alphabetically in a storage bin and lock it in a secure area only accessible to the clerks,” Woolfolk explained.
It doesn’t stop there.
“We do multiple reconciliations each day to make sure the ballots received in the system match what we have physically. At the end of the day, those ballots are filed alphabetically with ballots received on earlier days. We then do a reconciliation of the total ballots received every couple of days,” she said.
Then for early process they take the first batch (ballots received up until close of business the evening of processing) and run a report.
“We will use that report to verify the absentee ballots received in that batch and that the envelope is properly completed either by absentee application or voted in the clerk’s presence and that the envelope notes that it is ‘OK to Cast,’” Woolkfolk explained. “If no inspection has been requested by end of business on the eve of processing, then the ballots will be processed using the State Tabulators by a team of clerk staff in public view.”
The machines in Mount Desert are stored in a locked storage room with a keypad that only the clerks have a code to access.
Each clerk has their own specific code. That way there is a log and record of exactly who accessed the storage room and when.
“When processing/accessing ballots we have a team of at least two clerks present,” she said.
During busy elections Woolfolk hires assistant clerks to help administer absentee voting. They are sworn in as seasonal assistant clerks.
“When I process ballots the weekend before an election, I use sworn poll workers from both primary parties (D&R) and unenrolled clerks or other party members to early process ballots before election day. This processing includes Election Day training for all poll workers,” she said.
This year Mount Desert will be processing any ballots that arrive between October 27 and 30 on Sunday afternoon.
“The rules around election clerks are a piece of our state election laws that I think works particularly well. Members of the two major parties are nominated by the municipal party committee every two years, and the municipal officers appoint them. They participate in regular training and many serve for decades. So while they work under the supervision of the clerk and warden, these folks are also accountable to the party leaders and members who appointed them and are well positioned to explain the process and discuss any questions or concerns anyone in the community or the party may have. Among the clerks working at any given time, there has to be a balance between the two major parties. Tallying at the end of the night to produce the final results is done by teams of one Democrat and one Republican who check each other’s work. There are also often poll watchers from the parties and from other organizations, who along with the media provide more witnesses that the proceedings are in accordance with the law,” Graves said.
In Tremont in November 2025 there had been 640 ballots cast. There were roughly 297 absentee ballot requests according to the state website.
STATE BALLOTS
BALLOTS FOR EACH TOWN
BAR HARBOR
Bar Harbor town ballot questions
Article 2 – SCHOOL REORGANIZATION – Do you favor approving the school administrative reorganization plan prepared by the MDIRSS -AOS#91 Reorganization Planning Committee to reorganize Trenton, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Mount Desert, Swan’s Island, Cranberry Isles and Frenchboro into a regional school unit with an effective date of 1 July 2028?
For more information on Article 2 see the news item on this website and the Reorganization Planning Committee’s webpage.
Article 3 – LAND USE ORDINANCE AMENDMENT – Alignment and Integration of Definitions – Shall an ordinance, dated June 10, 2026, and entitled “An amendment to align and integrate state housing related definitions” be enacted?
This amendment would align the state housing law related definitions with Bar Harbor’s definitions and consolidate most of the definitions within the primary definition section, Article XII, in the Land Use Ordinance. Link to full text:
CRANBERRY ISLES
Town office is located at 61 Main Street, Islesford.
MOUNT DESERT
The polling place for the Town of Mount Desert: Town Hall, 21 Sea Street, Northeast Harbor
TREMONT
Special Town Election – November 3: Polls will be open from 8 am to 8 pm to vote on the following questions:
Question 1 School Reorganization Plan: Do you favor approving the school administrative reorganization plan prepared by the MDIRSS-AOS #91 Reorganization Planning Committee to reorganize Trenton, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Mount Desert, Swan’s Island, Cranberry Isles, and Frenchboro into a Regional School Unit with an effective date of 7/1/2028?
Question 2 Land Use Ordinance & Site Plan Review Ordinance: Shall an amendment to the Land Use Ordinance and a repeal of the Site Plan Review Ordinance entitled “Site Plan Review” be enacted?
Question 3 Board of Appeals Ordinance: Shall an amendment to the Board of Appeals Ordinance entitled “Board of Appeals” be enacted?
Question 4 Land Use Ordinance- Appeals: Shall an amendment to the Land Use Ordinance entitled “Appeals” be enacted?
Question 5 Land Use Ordinance- Living Shoreline: Shall an amendment to the Land Use Ordinance entitled “Living Shoreline” be enacted?
SAMPLE BALLOT(Opens in new window)
- Town Meeting Warrant- Will post once approved by Select Board
- Ordinance Amendment Explanations (Opens in new window)
- Land Use Ordinance & Site Plan Review Ordinance(Opens in new window)
- Board of Appeals Ordinance(Opens in new window)
- Land Use Ordinance- Appeals(Opens in new window)
- Land Use Ordinance- Living Shoreline
Voting will take place in the Harvey Kelley Meeting Room located at 20 Harbor Drive, Bass Harbor ME.
TRENTON
Election Day, November 3.
The Trenton Town Office will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m for voting. Contact or visit the Town Office for early/absentee voting, ballots available now through October 29 at 5 p.m.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR
2026 State General & Special Municipal Election, Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Polls located at the SWH Fire Station on 250 Main Street in Southwest Harbor. Open 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.
- Special Municipal Election – Referendum Questions 1 & 2
- Do you favor approving the school administrative reorganization plan prepared by the MDIRSS-AOS #91 Reorganization Planning Committee to reorganize Trenton, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Mount Desert, Swan’s Island, Cranberry Isles, and Frenchboro into a Regional School Unit with an effective date of 7/1/2028.
- Shall the Ordinance entitled “ORDINANCE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SOUTHWEST HARBOR FIRE DEPARTMENT (last updated 05.02.1995) be amended.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To see the voter data bases in Maine.
Title 21-A Subchapter 6, Voting Devices, Article 1, Voting Machines and Article 2, Electronic Tabulating Systems.
Title 21-A §503-A. Election clerks and the rest of Title 21-A, Chapter 7, Election Officials for more on the distinction between municipal clerk and warden (in many small towns, one person fills both roles).
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