Kennebunkport Voter Registration and Verification Process-2022

Dear Kennebunkport Republicans,
After a very disappointing loss at the local town elections on June 8, our Republican candidate for the RSU 21 School Board, James McMann, compared the number of registered voters in Kennebunkport to the number of people who voted for him and his opponent. He lost that night 735 (D) to 444 (R). He found that represented nearly all registered Democrat voters vs. approximately half of the registered Republican voters. This caused other committee members, including Jule Gerrish and Jerry Collins, to conduct a deeper dive into the issues of voter registration and the process of updating the voter rolls. Subsequently, this initiated a discussion on why there is such a disparity of turnout between Democrat and Republican voters in our town.
The following email was sent by Jule Gerrish to the Kennebunkport Town Clerk and the responses are informative and positive.  The Town Clerk responses are in red.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Blessings,

Sue Cayford, Chair. Kennebunkport Republican Committee
God bless America and God bless Maine 󾓦

Email from Kennebunkport Town Clerk Jamie L. Mitchell to Jule Garrish:

Good Morning Jule,
I hope this e-mail finds you well.  Some of the questions you have asked are governed by the Secretary of State, Department of Elections, and as such, must follow required protocol.  I have attached a Request for Information from CVR Form, instructions on how to complete the form and a schedule of what information can be released for what purposes.
In addition, I offer the following responses to your questions:

1. When were those legal residents who passed away prior to the 2020 November election deleted from the Port Voter Registration records?  How many were deleted?

Each municipality is informed by the State’s vital records department when a deceased voter should be removed, and it is done immediately upon notification.
2. How many invalid signed ballots returned in November 2020 were deleted, and when may I and some others interested view them?
Fortunately, Kennebunkport has an extremely high success rate with absentee balloting, and voters following the required procedures to accurately return ballots.  We do everything in our power to ensure each vote is accurately counted, including but not limited to calling people in the event they have not returned their ballots or if there was an issue.  It is extremely rare in Kennebunkport to have invalid ballots and in fact, there were no invalid ballots in the November 2020 election.  Unfortunately, per the Secretary of State – ballots are not public record.
3. Can you send me via response email your list of those deceased in 2021 and the date they were purged?
This request would be made via The attached request form.
4. Is the Port’s updating policy the same as State of Maine’s?  Or how does Port’s differ?
The Voter Registration process is governed by the State and thus identical.
5. Do you have a list of residents who vote in another state?  How do you discern if a resident votes in 2 states?
We do not have access to other states records.  Other states are notified in writing when a former resident/registered voter registers to vote in Maine.
6. How do you record ballots mailed out and count those returned?  Were any invalid and deleted from the count in November 2020?
This request would be made via the attached request form.
7. How many Republicans, Democrats, Independents oversaw the recent election to completion of the count?
This request would be made via the attached request form.

Please let me know if you have any other questions at this time.

Best Regards,

Jamie L. Mitchell, Town Clerk

Town of Kennebunkport
PO Box 566
6 Elm Street
Kennebunkport, ME 04046

E-mail:  jmitchell@kennebunkportme.gov

Tel: (207) 967-1610