11/05/03
Voters approve school building
referendums; elect Ray, West to School Board
By a margin of more than 2 to 1, Cape Elizabeth voters Tuesday overwhelmingly
approved bond issues for building renovations and improvements to Cape Elizabeth
High School; and to build a new wing for Pond Cove Elementary School for
kindergarten students.
They also elected Katharine Ray and Richard West to the Cape Elizabeth School
Board.
It was a long day and night for Town election officials and volunteers as
they handled a steady of stream of voters throughout Election Day. Waits
of up to one hour were reported for voters to submit each of the three ballots
-- local, state and county -- into the vote-counting machine.
At days end 4,900 voters had passed through the polls at Cape Elizabeth High
School, a turnout of 62 percent.
Cape Elizabeth voters also voted for a new Cumberland County charter, and
overwhelmingly picked Town Councilor John McGinty, seconded by South Portland's
Nancy Larsen, as their choices to sit on a new County Charter Committee.
On the state ballot, voters were equally vocal against initiatives asking
for a Maine resort casino and for slot machines at race tracks. Voters in
Cape Elizabeth were more evenly divided, however, on the citizen initiative
for property tax relief. Roughly a third of those voting chose the citizen
initiative to have the state fund 55 percent of local education costs; one
third voted for a competing tax-relief measure proposed by the Legislature;
and, one third voted for neither.
Here are the results of Cape's voting:
