Bangor residents to vote on school budget today

Posted June 09, 2009, at 7:01 a.m.

BANGOR, Maine — Bangor residents will go to the polls today to cast ballots in the $42 million school budget referendum.

Polls open at 7 a.m.

Bangor is one of many communities statewide — among them Brewer and the SAD 63 communities of Holden, Eddington and Clifton — that has school budget referendum voting on Tuesday. School budget validation referendums now are required by the state.

This is the second year Bangor residents will have had the final say on whether the school budget gets approved.

One person who voted early in Bangor on Saturday was Donna Shaw, who said she did so at her husband’s urging.

“I would have waited until Tuesday,” she said. “He came in yesterday.”

In Bangor, 50 percent of the votes in the November 2008 election were cast by absentee ballot, City Clerk Patti Dubois has said.

Budden, Owens and election clerk Betty Snively speculated that this year’s low turnout for early voting was because the school budget was the only issue on the ballot.

“They should vote — it’s their money,” Owens said of residents.

Shaw said she does not expect a high turnout during Tuesday’s referendum because “most don’t vote [on school issues] unless they have kids or grandkids.”

On Tuesday, polls will be open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Those who have not registered to vote may do so at the polls at the civic center, Snively said.

nricker@bangordailynews.net

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