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Portland clerk urges voters to submit absentee ballots as soon as possible

Clerk Katherine Jones says there were 12,000 absentee ballot during the last presidential election. This time, the number has jumped to 22,000.

PORTLAND, Maine — The Portland city clerk's office is hard at work packing absentee ballots to send to voters.

"We mailed them out Tuesday and have already received three back of us yesterday," said clerk Katherine Jones.

City Clerk Katherine Jones said there has been a large influx of absentee ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.

She said there were 12,000 absentee ballots during the last presidential election. This time, the number has jumped to 22,000.

"We've so far sent out 14,000 absentees. We're finishing up with the big push we've been waiting for," said Jones.

Starting Friday, Maine voters with print disabilities can request an accessible electronically-delivered absentee ballot request form on the secretary of state's website. This comes after a lawsuit was filed in July.

"Any government is made far more legitimate in a selection by the voters if every voter has full access to the democratic process," said Secretary of State, Matthew Dunlap.

Meanwhile, Jones said she is confident in the absentee ballot process.

"We do the same process, it's done the same way. It's a confirmation yesterday with the ballots being mailed out Tuesday morning and already having voters return them on Wednesday," said Jones.

Jones urges people to submit their absentee ballots as soon as possible.

"The sooner we get them in, the sooner we can start processing them. It helps on the other end of election night because we've been able to process a lot of the absentee ballots and we can start running them through the machine which is usually the hold up," said Jones. 

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