Volume CXXXIII, Number 8 November 2, 2001 f

Town of Brunswick elections fast approaching
SAM DOWNING
STAFF WRITER

Bowdoin students can celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 18-year-old voting age by heading down Federal Street on Tuesday, November 6 to cast their ballots in the state referendum and municipal elections. The polls are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Brunswick voters at the polls last November, during the hotly contested Presidential election. (Nicholas J. LoVecchio, Bowdoin Orient)

Tuesday's election features a proposed change in Brunswick coastal zoning, six state bond levy questions totaling nearly $150-million, and several town officer contests.

If Brunswick voters affirm municipal Question 1-the Coastal Protection Zone amendments passed by the town council last spring-they will bring a complicated series of changes to Brunswick's zoning density code. Supporters argue the revisions will help prevent dangerous lawn and septic system runoff from killing shellfish in Maquoit and Middle Bay, while opponents are concerned that the measure would infringe on private property rights.

Voters will also decide if the state should be allowed to borrow money by issuing bonds to pay for a variety of projects, from affordable housing, transportation, and education to environmental protection and potato marketing.

Terms for town and School Board offices are two years. All offices are nonpartisan.

The six bond questions would allow the state to borrow money for a broad range of issues. Question 1 allows bond money for affordable housing and housing for domestic violence victims; Questions 2 covers biomedical and marine research; Question 3 appropriates transportation funding, while Question 4 provides for improvements in educational facilities; Question 5 links nine environmental regulation and pollution control provisions with a potato marketing campaign, and Question 6 lets the state borrow money to "make improvements" to state sponsored universities and the Maine Maritime Academy.

If all six bonds are approved, the total interest and principal paid will run to approximately $186,437,363, State Treasurer Dale McCormick said in his ballot statement.

All Brunswick voters have a choice between three candidates for the Town Council Representative At-Large. Voters who live in districts One, Three and Four will have a choice of candidates to represent their council districts.
The incumbents in the other four districts are getting a free ride to re-election-no one has filed against them. All of the School Board officers, including At-Large Officer and Bowdoin Government Professor Allen Springer, are running for re-election unopposed.

Brillant said the town is not predicting a specific turnout for the election. There are 13,934 registered voters in Brunswick, she said, and "Many Bowdoin students are registered in town."

Brunswick citizens may register to receive absentee ballots by declaring their legal residence to be the state of Maine. Any voter may request temporary or permanent absentee status for future elections.

Bowdoin students may register to vote in the election if they are declared residents of the Town of Brunswick and the State of Maine. Registration is conducted at the Town Clerk's Office at 28 Federal Street. On Election Day, citizens may register at the Recreation Center at 30 Federal Street and only those registering on Election Day may vote at the Center.

Voters in District 7 (encompassing most of the Bowdoin campus proper) who do not register on Election Day must cast their ballots at the Coffin School on Barrows Drive, off of Columbia Avenue.

Registrar of Voters Pauline Brillant said, "Bowdoin students live in every district in Brunswick," adding that even Brunswick Apartments is in a separate district (District 5) from the majority of the campus. Students are advised to contact the Town Clerk's office to confirm their district and voting location.
Students who do not want to declare their legal residency here can vote in their home states or cities. Students may register to vote absentee in their home states or cities by logging on to the National Voting Information page of the National Association of Secretaries of State's at www.nass.org/electioninfo/statelinks.html.

Voting and absentee registration is managed by the Town Clerk's Office. The office, located at 28 Federal Street in Brunswick, is located directly above the Police Department and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The town is directing all elections questions to the Clerk's Office at (207) 725-6658.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Maine's ratification of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted 18-20 year-olds the right to vote. According to studies by the non-profit Close Up Foundation, a promoter of the youth vote, only 35 percent of 18-24 year-olds voted in the 2000 presidential election, down from a high of 50 percent in 1972, the first presidential election year after the amendment was ratified.