CARIBOU, Maine – Excitement around the U.S. presidential race led to voter turnout that surpassed that of 2020 at the election polls in Caribou Tuesday.
In total, 2,511 residents from Caribou and Connor Township turned out to vote in person, soaring past the 1,998 in-person total during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Absentee ballots from both communities totaled 1,506 compared with 2,086 in 2020, said City Clerk Danielle Brissette.
Lines often stretched out the doors throughout the day, especially from morning to noon and then the final evening hours, Brissette said.
In a close race for Maine’s 2nd congressional district, Caribou voters also leaned Republican and supported Austin Theriault over Democratic candidate Jared Golden. Theriault gained 55.2 percent of votes, totaling 2,159, while Golden snagged 44.8 percent, or 1,752 votes. Golden ended up winning reelection, claiming 188,587 votes over Theriault’s 185,785.
A majority also supported other Republican candidates. Sue Bernard was declared the winner for State Senate District 1 over Democrat Vaughn McLaughlin. In Caribou, she gained 67.4 percent of total votes, or 2,645. McLaughlin had 32.5 percent, or 1,278.
Republican Tim Guerrette, the current representative for State House District 4, won his reelection bid. He gained most of Caribou’s votes – 75 percent, 2,773 votes – over Democratic challenger Samantha Paradis, who had 24.9 percent, or 920 votes.
Local voters also supported current State House District 3 representative Mark Babin, a Republican, with 131 votes compared to 72 for former District 3 representative David McCrea, a Democrat. Babin ultimately won the statewide race with 2,147 votes over McCrea’s 1,861.
For U.S. Senate, the Independent incumbent Angus King claimed victory over challengers Demi Kouzounas, a Republican, David Costello, a Democrat, and Jason Cherry, Independent. In Caribou, King received 2,009 votes over Kouzounas’ 1,568, Costello’s 273 and Cherry’s 66.
In Caribou’s city council race, incumbent Jody Smith and Paul Watson were declared the winners, with 2,217 and 1,677 votes, respectively. They will fill two 3-year terms. Candidate Benjamin Tucker gained 1,036 votes.
David Keaton defeated incumbent Betheny Anderson for a 3-year seat on the RSU 39 school board, with Keaton garnering 1,069 votes and Anderson 667. Other candidates Lori Knight-Phair and Nathanael Kamm had 995 and 545 votes, respectively.
For county Register of Probate, Caribou voters elected Catherine Goff, a Republican, with 2,087 votes over April Duffy, a Democrat, who had 1,639 votes. Goff won the county wide race.
In a narrow county commissioners race for Aroostook District 3, Daniel Deveau, a Republican, edged out Democratic incumbent Norman Fournier with 51.6 percent compared to Fournier’s 48.4 percent of the vote, with 4,776 and 4,480 votes, respectively. Caribou voters also favored Deveau 140 to 29.
Uncontested candidates included Bethany Zell, Jefferson Cary Memorial Hospital Fund; Paul Underwood, County Commissioner for Aroostook District 2; Peter Johnson, Aroostook County Sheriff; and Michael Carpenter, Aroostook Judge of Probate.
Voters supported a referendum allowing the state to grant Caribou Technology Center $1.6 million for various program equipment upgrades. The $1.6 million is part of a $20 million state bond from pandemic relief funds that state legislators allocated toward high school career and technical centers. The referendum passed with a 2,756-to-812 vote.
Other municipal referendums focused on amendments to Caribou’s city charter, all of which voters passed.
With a 2,711-to-751 vote, residents approved allowing the city manager to give city councilors a detailed city expense budget update on or before January 15 every year, instead of the original deadline of Sept. 15 each year. Another amendment, passing 2,002 to 1,383, clarifies that the city’s enterprise accounts are not funded through local taxes and that councilors can approve moving excess enterprise revenues to other city cost centers.
Voters approved 2,547 to 923 to add language clarifying that the city’s capital improvement program is for repairs or upgrades of $5,000 or more to city-owned property, equipment and facilities.
With a 2,623 to 844 vote, residents agreed that the charter should specify that, at the start of every city council meeting, the mayor will announce if a councilor’s absence is or is not excused. Residents also supported 2,720 to 761 putting in a rule that city councilors should adopt a code of conduct annually before January 31.
Seventy five percent of Caribou voters said no to changing the Maine state flag back to its 1909 pine tree design but 70 percent said yes to limiting contributions to political action committees to $5,000.
Local voters narrowly supported a $25 million state bond for development of renewable energy, information technology, agriculture, aquaculture, among other technology and science industries, with 51.4 percent saying yes and 48.5 percent voting no.
They also approved, 57.6 percent to 42.4, a $30 million bond for designing and maintaining motorized and non-motorized trails, but rejected a $10 million bond to restore and preserve historic buildings. That latter question had 53 percent of voters saying no and 46.9 percent saying yes.
This story was updated with new election information.
