The Marshwood school district’s $35.8 million budget for next year was approved this week on a vote of 153 to 33. This meant the budget was considered by 3% of the town’s 6,264 registered voters.
In each of the three June elections when the school budget was the only item on the ballot, as it was Tuesday, the turnout has remained at 3%, according to Town Clerk Barbara Bennett. Speaking from a very quiet third floor in Town Hall on election day, Bennett said such extremely low turnouts are definitely a trend.
In contrast, 4,634 people in South Berwick voted in the 2020 presidential election, and Maine had the third highest voter turnout in the nation for that election at 75.5%, after Minnesota and Colorado. According to the League of Women Voter’s State of Democracy in Maine study, a significant percentage of registered voters in Maine still do not participate in each election.
In Eliot, the district budget was approved on a vote of 513 to 178.
