The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Susan Young is the Bangor Daily News opinion editor.
Maine typically has among the highest voter turnout in the country. In 2020, a presidential election year, 75 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. In 2018, the last year with a governor’s race on the ballot, turnout was 59 percent, according to the Maine Secretary of State.
While it’s great that Maine is among the top states for voter turnout, even here too few people participate in our elections. In the last election for governor, more than a third of eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot and a quarter skipped the last presidential election.
There are lots of reasons people don’t vote. Some say they don’t have time. It’s hard to square this rationale with the many voting options available in Maine, like early in-person voting and no-excuse absentee voting.
Some non-voters complain about the quality of candidates, which, in some cases, I wholeheartedly understand. But, when they say there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans or between specific candidates from either party, this simply isn’t true. And, in many races, there are independent candidates to vote for as well.
Given the distinct choices that are on the ballot for this year – from the governor’s race to city councils to referendums on development and town spending – sitting out an election is a troubling capitulation. Essentially, if you don’t vote, you allow other people to make decisions for you, decisions you may bitterly complain about later.
And those decisions, right now, are stark, as President Joe Biden laid out on Wednesday night. It may be easy to dismiss his warnings about losing our democracy as hyperbolic. But, with politically motivated violence on the rise – and gaining acceptance – we are indeed in a dark place.
Voting won’t immediately bring us into the light, but it is an essential part of preserving our democracy.
As Biden said: “We don’t settle our differences, America, with a riot, a mob, or a bullet, or a hammer. We settle them peacefully at the ballot box.”
Voting is your best opportunity to influence our government. If you think Maine and the country are on the wrong track, there are candidates and choices for you. If you support your current representatives, you can make that choice too.
I understand that the choices before us, in terms of candidates and ballot questions, are likely to be imperfect. But they are the choices we face on Nov. 8. And, if you don’t make one, someone else will likely will.
In Maine, more than 243,000 absentee ballots have been requested. That far exceeds the 196,710 absentee ballot requests that were submitted in 2018, the last gubernatorial election. Of the absentee ballots requested this year, more than 191,000 had been returned by Thursday afternoon.
An analysis by the Secretary of State’s Office, released on Monday, found that twice as many absentee ballot requests came from Democrats than from either Republicans or unenrolled voters.
If you have an absentee ballot and not yet returned it, be sure to do so by Tuesday. To ensure it is received in time to be tallied, drop it off at your town office or in a secure ballot drop box if your community has one. It is too late to put it in the mail.
If you are not registered to vote, you can do so on Election Day. Be sure to bring an ID and proof of residency to register.
If you have questions about what is on your ballot, the Secretary of State’s Office offers sample ballots online, and your community likely has information about local races and ballot questions. You can also find your polling place on the Secretary of State’s website.
The Bangor Daily News’ voter’s guide is also a wealth of information.
Now, it’s up to you to do your part for democracy: Go vote!