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I'm sure no one needs reminding that Election Day is quickly approaching. Colorful yard signs are piling up along the roads, campaign ads are intensifying, and town offices around the state are humming with activity.

Before we know it, the clock will strike 8 on November 5, and returns will start streaming in. 

In anticipation of that moment, Emily Bader dug into the data and found that a third of Maine's jurisdictions — representing nearly 40,000 registered voters — still count ballots by hand.

This, as one might imagine, is not the fastest process. And studies have shown it to have higher error rates than electronic scanners — though there are safeguards in place.

You can read more in Emily's story, as well as explore our interactive map, which lets you search by town to find out what tabulation method is used, how many registered voters there are, and more. 

Oh, and if you haven't yet, please take our quick reader survey — thank you!

— Stephanie

Bucking national trends, a third of Maine towns still count ballots by hand

When polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, six trained election clerks in New Vineyard, a town of about 700 in Franklin County, will start counting ballots by hand. There are 13 questions on New Vineyard voters’ ballots: eight races for county, state and federal positions and five state referendum questions.

Each of these votes will have to be tallied independently — not once, but twice.

New Vineyard is one of 150 towns, or about a third of all voting jurisdictions in Maine, that counts ballots by hand. Maine’s other 330 cities and towns use devices called hand-fed optical scanners, which scan hand-marked paper ballots and tabulate the votes cast, storing the data on a memory stick-like device.

“The data demonstrates that hand counting increases the possibility of human error, and it takes a lot longer to count ballots when you’re doing it by hand,” said Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. 

Read this story by Emily Bader.

In Maine’s probate courts, most adults placed in guardianships don’t have lawyers: A new report from Disability Rights Maine found that between 2019 and 2021, 75 percent of people placed in guardianships did not have an attorney. Read this story by Josh Keefe.

At Maine EMS, a debate over funding and process: Some think all the money should go directly to EMS agencies, while others emphasize the need to support training centers. Read this story by Adrienne Washington.

The Maine roots of modern environmental policy: How two Maine senators shaped U.S. protections against pollution. Read this story by Emmett Gartner.

The Maine Monitor awarded two-year Press Forward grant: The Monitor is among 205 local newsrooms receiving the national recognition. Read this story.

The Maine Monitor earns 11 Maine Press Association awards: Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting co-founders also honored Saturday as “pioneers of Maine’s nonprofit media landscape.” Read this story.

The decision that can last a lifetime

She didn’t drive. She couldn’t schedule appointments on her own. She wouldn’t be able to hold a job and was dependent on others to get through the day. The petition filed in the Hancock County Probate Court by Julie Thielen-Montgomery in 2011 painted a helpless picture of her daughter, Cindy Thielen.

Thielen-Montgomery was asking the court to make her the guardian of her 19-year-old daughter, who was diagnosed with autism at 13. That meant the mother would have complete control of her daughter’s life choices for years to come. Cindy Thielen didn’t want this. She knew she needed some help but wanted to control her own life.

Read this July 2023 story by Samantha Hogan.

Know of a story that we should be digging into? Send it to our newsroom. 

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