PORTLAND, Maine — Voter turnout across the state surpassed what both state and local officials anticipated on Super Tuesday.
It was the first time in 20 years the state has used the primary system instead of caucusing.
Sec. of State Matt Dunlap said he initially projected a 15 percent turnout, but the number of voters he saw touring polling locations from Old Town to Portland exceeded that.
"Which is good," Dunlap said. "We always like to be wrong in that direction If you're going to be wrong, be low not high."
According to Dunlap, a controversial statewide referendum question and excitement around the presidential race were factors in the turnout. He also said Tuesday's nice weather may have played a role.
Some of the long lines were also due to confusion among 'unenrolled' voters who were required to register with a party in order to vote in the presidential primary.
NEWS CENTER Maine received reports from several municipalities that were not prepared for the number of voters. Some local clerks did have enough state-issued ballots.
"Lines have been out the door," Allen Paul, Deputy Warden of the Scarborough voting location said. "We did not expect that. We thought this was going to be a relatively slow day with somewhere between 4,000 or 5,000 people, but we could be blowing that number out of the water."
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Dunlap admitted there were ballot shortages in some cities and towns. His office ordered enough ballots for a 60 percent turnout.
If precincts run out, they can make photocopies of the ballots, but those are required to be counted by hand as they cannot be read by the machines.
Because of that, Dunlap insisted there would not be any issues with results like there were in the Iowa caucuses.
The use of an untested vote reporting app caused mass confusion and delayed the results.
"We use paper ballots and felt pens which seem to be continually reliable going back to the 1890s and why fix something that isn't broken," Dunlap said.
Maine is one of 14 states taking part in Super Tuesday. 24 delegates are up for grabs.
As for the early votes for democratic candidates that already dropped out, Dunlap said they will still be tallied.
"It will be up to the party to figure out how to distribute the votes for the purpose of allocating delegates to the national convention," he said.
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