state elections

The annual town meeting in held the first Saturday of March, with elections of officers  the day before on Friday . The polls are open on Friday for elections from 4pm to 8pm here at the Hiram Town Office. & Town meeting begins at 9am at the Sacopee Valley Middle School.  Nomination Papers are available mid November for elected positions, if you are interested in running for an office watch the Shopping Guide and this website for more information in November.  If you wish to submit an article to be voted on at Town Meeting the deadline follows the same dates as submitting nomination papers. Scroll to the bottom of the page to view our town report . 

Any  registered voter may vote by an absentee ballot, no specific reason is required to vote absentee. Absentee ballots can be requested three months prior to any election and up until the third business day prior to elections (see Special Circumstances below).   

Please allow for mailing if you are not voting in person at the Town Office, the post office is recommending up to 14 days for mailing to and from.  For State Elections you can request an absentee ballot electronically by visiting the State of Maine Absentee Ballot Request Site. 

The State also allows for Special Circumstances Absentee Voting, this is a different application which is available for the three days up to an election. There are  for four specific reasons one can request one of these applications, one, an unexpected absence from town during the entire time the polls are open on Election Day,  or two a physical disability, or three incapacity or illness that has resulted in the voter being unable to leave home or a treatment facility or fourth the inability to travel to the polls if the voter is a resident of a coastal island ward or precinct. The voter must sign the special circumstances application, an immediate family member may not sign this form for the voter. Please call the office for additional information if you are unsure if this applies.  

To register to vote simply come to the Town Office and fill out a voter registration application. There is no cut off date to register to vote in person here at the office. You can even register to vote on election day.  If you are currently registered in another town in Maine you need to complete a new registration card to vote here.  For detailed information from the State of Maine click here. 

In 2018 the State of Maine implemented Ranked Choice Voting. Please visit the Secretary of States page for detailed information . Samples are from a previous election on the States website. 

The Town of Hiram received a tabulator to use for all State and Federal Elections. This is used in place of the wooden ballot box used for Municipal Elections. It is an optical scanner which tallies the ballot when inserted. This means no more counting until the wee hours of the morning for the election clerks. 

Nobody will ever deprive the American people the right to vote, except the American people themselves, the only way they could do this is by not voting.                    Franklin D Roosevelt