REGION — According to information provided by town clerks, more than a third of registered voters around Oxford Hills had requested absentee ballots  ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election. And 95% of those who received them returned them via mail or drop-off to their municipal office by last Thursday’s deadline.

Turnout was strong for the two-thirds who exercised their right to vote during Election Day Tuesday. At Buckfield’s Municipal Center, the line waiting to vote at times spilled out the front door onto the steps around nine a.m.

Around 9:30 at Oxford’s Town Office on Pottle Road the parking lot was still full even though the line of voters waiting to receive their ballots moved at a pace brisk. The same was true at Norway’s fire station, where voters entered at the front of the building and exited through the back on the Beal Street side.

“There’s been a terrific turnout,” Hilary Wade, a volunteer at Norway’s polling place. “It’s been steady. The line went around the building before the polls opened this morning. It took a while before everybody got in.”

Of about 11,478 registered voters in the towns of Buckfield, Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield and Oxford more than 3,905 had requested absentee ballots. Of those 3,703 were returned. In Paris, the number of requested ballots was not confirmed as of press time, but 1,090 of its 3,243 voters had voted early, on par with neighboring communities.

The process operated smoothly enough at Oxford Hills’ polling places all morning, but outside forces were also at work to disrupt the 2024 presidential election. Threats were made to at least eight schools around Maine, including Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School just after 10 a.m.

The calls were a part of a concerted swatting operation, where someone calls law enforcement to report a false threat, to get law enforcement and first responders to a specific location. Calls made to the other schools – Lewiston, South Portland, Portland, Scarborough, Bangor, Gorham and North Berwick – shared the same IP address. Heather Manchester, superintendent of the Oxford Hills school district confirmed that same address that has been used to make similar threatening calls, from a foreign country. In each phone threat, the caller used the same narrative.