Evelyn Wilbur PHILLIPS — It may not be as professional as in bigger places, but it's more personalized, says Town Clerk Evelyn Wilbur, who not only has regular office hours, and works from home, but is also busy delivering absentee ballots to people in Madrid as well as Phillips for the upcoming Nov. 4 election.

Laws governing voting by absentee ballots have become much less rigid in the past few years. Bigger places require you to come in and pick up ballots, but Evelyn, who has been town clerk for the past nine years, tries to make it easier on people, especially shut-ins and the elderly.

Many places around the country are dealing with electronic voting machines, and "computers are an old story. Here, we're just getting online for computers," she said.

Right now, Wilbur is scurrying to get ready for the Nov. 4 election, which in addition to attracting large number of voters is being held at a new location: the old Phillips Primary School, which at one time housed the entire K-6 elementary grades. People should pull into the end next to Evergreen Cemetery, go through the double doors and go into the first door on the right. Polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Phillips Town Clerk Evelyn Wilbur gets ready for the Nov. 4 Presidential Election, which in addition to attracting a large number of voters is being held at a new location: the old Phillips Primary School. People should pull into the end next to Evergreen Cemetery, go through the double doors and go into the first door on the right. Polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (BJ Bangs photo) The Primary School is slated to become home to the town office at some future point. It presently houses the Community Food Bank, which is open the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon and the third Saturday of each month from 8 to 11 a.m. With the economy becoming more challenging, Wilbur, who also helps with the food pantry, says, "I think we'll have more people."

Moving to a new location poses a whole new host of issues, like moving the voting booths, now housed upstairs in the community building, and making sure the phone line is up and working for the special voting fax for the visually impaired, mandated by the state.

There are lots of rules and regulations when it comes to elections, and Wilbur jokes about the state trooper coming to her house on Blake Hill to pick up old ballots. The state police pick up the ballots and return the old ones, she says. You have to keep records and ballots for specified periods of time.

To keep up with all the rules, which change quite frequently, Wilbur attends trainings hosted by the Maine Municipal Association and others. People don't realize how much goes into an election.

She predicts Nov. 4 to be similar to most presidential elections, a lot higher turnout than at just the referendums. She has scheduled three people to work from

9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and three others to work from 1 to 6 p.m. And she is still arranging for people to come in a little before 8 to count. Her day will go from 7 to 10 or 11 p.m. or later. After 8, she wants to have six groups of two at least.

In order to facilitate counting, she has scheduled a special training this week so that counters will be more prepared to get the ball rolling. Everything has to be counted in a particular order: the candidates running for office, then the referendum questions, and then the school consolidation question. There is a process as to how and when everything is done.

One thing about Phillips, she says, about half of the voters are un-enrolled. They used to be called Independent, but that changed when the Green Party became the Green Independent Party she said. What that means is primary election turnout tends to be somewhat lower than many areas.

Additionally, Madrid, an unorganized territory, votes in Phillips.

Wilbur's job goes a lot further than elections. She issues the dog licenses, marriage licenses, and death certificates. Just like with everything else, these have changed. She recounts it used to be that people had to wait 14 days, and get a blood test before issuing a marriage license. Now you can get one the same day.

And if you lived in a town your whole life and wasn't born or buried there, there is no record of your death in that community, she says. Dog licenses used to be handled at the town office, she said, and she handled voter registrations. Now that has switched. People have to register to vote at the town office before the blackout period which took effect Oct. 15. However, people can register to vote on Nov. 4 at the polling place.

Additionally, it is the town clerk that takes the minutes at the town meeting, records the votes and does a whole host of other duties, as needed.

Wilbur has regular office hours on Tuesday and Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. upstairs in the municipal building, and on Saturdays from 8 to 9 a.m. "If people need me, they can call me at home."

Working with numbers and computers is not new to Wilbur who spent 37 years working at Fosters, which at one time employed 300 people on all three shifts. Among other jobs there, she worked with workmen's comp and payroll. Nine years ago, former Town Manager Laura Toothaker called her a couple of days before town elections and asked her to run for town clerk. "Can I think about it overnight?" Wilbur said. She did, and assumed the position being vacated by Anna Teale, who was moving out of town. She says she remembers it well because she was still getting up to milk the cows first thing in the morning and wondered how she could fit it all in.

At 76, Wilbur sometimes says, "I'm too old to keep doing this," but she keeps on going, and she is credited with working very hard.

"You get more than your money's worth," First Selectman Eric Kinney said at the June town meeting, referring to the budget item covering the annual stipend for town clerk.