'Dead day' for voter turnout in Summers's hometown

SCARBOROUGH -- At the state's largest polling station and Charlie Summers's hometown, the election warden, called today's voting participation "a dead day".

At 5:30 p.m. today about 1,300 voters. They had predicted to see some 2,000 voters but the total might reach 3,000 said Tody Justice, town clerk. There are 13,561 registered voters in Scarborough in a city of about 18,000.

Unlike other towns in Maine, Scarborough only had the state referendum, U.S. Senate primary and the Congressional races on the ballot. Other towns had school budget issues, legislative primaries and other local issues on the ballot. There is nothing here, Gledhill said.

The biggest group of voters in town are independents followed by Republicans, said Gledhill.

"The real race is in the Democratic party," Gledhill said. "I have even seen a few Republicans change over to Democrats early on."

For some voters at the polls today it was about supporting the home town candidate, Summers, while others stayed true to their party affiliation.

Summers (R-Scarborough) is among six candidates in the Democratic Primary and two in the Republican Primary in the contested 1st Congressional District vying for a seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Allen. Allen decided to run for U.S. Senate against incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins.

Summers' primary opponent is Dean Scontras, who has never before run for political office.

John Buckley is a regular voter and came to support Charlie Summers. "I think he is a straight forward guy and he thinks like a Republican," he said. Buckley said there is too strong of a Democrat presence in the state.

Chris Smith is a self proclaimed "hardcore" Democrat and not a supporter of Charlie Summers he said.

"Summers doesn't support minimum wage, he chooses business over individuals and he is in favor of a health care system I don't support," Smith said. "His platform is similar to the Bush platform of the last eight years and that has to be demolished."

Jane Wiseman was one of the voters who turned out to support the "Scarborough boy". She has known Summers on a personal level for several years through community activities and is vaguely familiar with his policies. She described his reputation in town as a "great family man".

It was Sarah Slagle's first election where she could vote at a polling station. For previous elections, the 20-year-old college democrat sent in absentee ballots.

Summers home town advantage was of no concern for Slagle.

"I don't usually vote with party lines but for this election I voted with party lines," Slagle said. "I vote for anyone who supports Obama."