WATERBORO – With 5 p.m. Thursday as the deadline, the community of Waterboro with about 8,000 residents, including  5,165 registered voters, was well on its way to having 1,000 or more absentee ballot requests.

That is because town officials put the word early that the Massabesic East school building on the grounds of Massabesic High School would no longer be available on voting day, Nov. 6. That meant Waterboro’s ‘old Town Hall’ space where the recreation department is now located would have to be the voting location. The space is connected by a hallway to the Town Hall.

It is the location where elections were held for years, before moving to the RSU 57 property. But the space isn’t as large, and parking around the Town Hall property may be an issue, though owners of a field across the street have offered its use for overflow parking.

Town Administrator Gary Lamb said there were 800 absentee ballots a week ago and he expected the number would reach 1,000 by the end of  the day Tuesday – and perhaps as many as 1,200 by the deadline at the close of business on Thursday.

To put that in perspective,  Waterboro had 500 absentee ballots in the 2016 Presidential election, the most ever –  until now. Lamb said  about 4,000 votes were cast in that contest.

The town is preparing for about 3,500 voters for the gubernatorial election, he said.

“If we can get 25-33 percent  of voters to vote absentee,  the lines after supper should be shorter,” said Lamb.  He said he expects the evening hours of Nov. 6 to be the busiest for voting.

Polls open at 7 a.m. in Waterboro,  and voters are asked to enter through the main door of the Town Hall and make their way through the building to the voting location. For those requiring it, the Recreation Department end of the building is handicap accessible.

The RSU 57 School Board voted to discontinue voting at Massabesic High School following a year long examination of the issue, citing safety concerns, superintendent Larry Malone said in a prior interview. Students walk  across an internal roadway from the main building to the East building, and school buses use the internal roadway to  exit to the main road.

There are four circumstances where absentee ballots may be available after Nov. 1. According to the Maine Secretary of State’s office, they include an unexpected absence from the municipality during the entire time the polls are open on election day; a physical disability; an inability to travel to the polls because the voter is a resident of a coastal island ward or precinct; or an incapacity or illness that has resulted in the voter being unable to leave home or a treatment facility.

All absentee ballots must be returned to the municipality in which the voter lives by 8 p.m. Nov. 6 to be counted.

NEW POLLING LOCATION IN SANFORD

Residents of Sanford’s Ward 3 will vote at the competition gym at Sanford High School and Regional Vocational Center on Alumni Drive because of space issues at Curtis Lake Church. The change was made earlier this year following public hearings.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.