Photo credits Katharine CorbettTo cast a ballot in person before Election Day, voters can go to the Municipal Building and vote absentee as this voter is doing. Pat Clay, an election worker, is checking to see if he is registered in Gorham. If he wishes to vote now, she checks off “voted in the presence of the clerk” and gives him a ballot. If he needs to register, he can. After voting, he seals his ballot in an envelope, signs the back, and gives it to the clerk who puts it in the daily box of ballots. If he wants to take it home, he must fill out an application.
Election worker Linda MacClean is stapling completed applications to ballots that were returned by mail or from the drop box in front of the building. She checks the signatures and puts them alphabetically in the daily plastic box of ballots along with the ballots that were voted in person.
At the end of the day, Town Clerk Laurie Nordfors runs a report of the ballots and matches the names to the ballots. On Election Day, workers at the polls will see that these voters have cast absentee ballots. She puts the report in the box. Beginning on October 27, two clerks check to see that all ballots on the daily lists are in their boxes. They take the ballots out of the envelopes and file the envelopes alphabetically in another box. The folded ballots are now separated from the envelopes. Once there is a good pile of anonymous ballots, another worker puts them through the machine, but no results are tabulated until Election Day.