The town of Brunswick is prepared for a big turnout on Election Day, but Town Clerk Fran Smith said that around 5,500 people have already voted.

“We’ve had a lot more absentee ballots this year than past elections,” said Smith.

Smith attributed the high number of absentee ballots to the fact that many people don’t want to wait in line on Election Day, and that some people will be out of town.

When asked if the story lines surrounding this election — including accusations from the Trump campaign that the election might be rigged — will cause people to avoid the polls, Smith said, “I think it’s more of a general issue of people wanting to avoid crowds. We haven’t heard anything yet about this election being rigged. I’m sure people make comments, but we haven’t heard anything.”

Smith said there will be extra staff manning the lines on Election Day, and they will have “a few more voting machines as well.”

Though many will choose to stick out the lines on Election Day, Smith encourages voters to use absentee ballots. The Brunswick Town Hall has extended its hours this week to 8-6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, and 8-7 p.m. on Thursday, which is the last day absentee ballots can be obtained. Smith noted that you can still return your absentee ballot after Thursday.

“Hopefully everything will go smoothly. There will be a lot of participation and people will get in and out,” Smith said of Tuesday’s election.

A little more than 1,000 people have cast absentee ballots in Topsham as of last week, and the town has approximately 250 more registered voters on the books than it did in August.

Topsham Town Clerk Linda Dumont said the absentee ballot process requires a lot of manpower. Her office has had to pull staff from other departments in order to maintain the regular workload and to make sure a stock of absentee ballots are ready for voters.

The state’s Centralized Voter Registration system is a good one, Dumont said, which helps protect against election fraud. It’s a lot of work, “but it’s there for a reason.”

Dumont anticipates heavy voter turnout Nov. 8 and has recruited new people to work at the polls and beefed up staff — lining up a total of 46 people working half-shifts to ensure the election runs as smoothly as possible. This year there will be extra election workers, registering voters and guiding them to the exit after they vote, “because we anticipate a lot of people.”

“There’s a pretty dedicated core of people that work each election and we’ve added some new people and I’m trying to pull in some younger folks,” Dumont said. “There’s some people that know this stuff and who have done if for a long time. That’s what makes it work.”

According to Bath City Clerk Mary White, absentee voting is up from the last presidential election in 2012, and far above the turnout in non-presidential elections. Although White doesn’t have an exact number of absentee ballots cast, she knows that it has surpassed prior years by far. Even with seasonal election clerks helping out, White and her staff are working morning to evening on organizing that absentee voting process and preparing for Election Day.

“We’ve gone over what we had at the last presidential by at least 200, so we’re probably heading toward 300,” White said. “We’ve had a good 100 in here today voting.”

White reminded voters that if they plan to register now or on Election Day, they need to remember to bring the proper paperwork, proof of identity and proof of residence.

Even with the large number of voters turning out to vote early, White suspects that lines will be long on Nov. 8.

“I don’t know, I think we’ll still get well over 3,000 on Election Day. Well over it,” said White. “I still foresee the lines being heavy.”

DARCIE MOORE, Ben Goodridge and Nathan Strout contributed to this report.