Voters register with Oxford County Democrats staff ahead of a Sunday vote to determine the delegates who will vote at the Maine Democratic Party convention on Saturday. (Staff photo/Joe Charpentier)

SOUTH PARIS — Hours before U.S. Senate candidates Nirav Shah and Shenna Bellows suspended their campaigns, more than 100 Democrats packed into the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School Sunday afternoon to elect delegates heavily favoring former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson to face longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins. 

The Oxford County Democrats elected 17 delegates and three alternates, out of 87 total candidates, who will help determine the party’s new candidate for the U.S. Senate on July 25 when the Maine Democratic Party will hold a statewide convention in Bangor.

Some 601 delegates will comprise the convention, 500 of which were elected from Maine’s 16 counties in addition to 101 state committee members. 

In county after county, the delegates elected seemed to favor Jackson, who appears to have garnered the number of loyal delegates needed to become the nominee. Oxford County was no exception.

Some 16 elected delegates pledged their votes to Jackson while one pledged to Shah, Maine’s former Center for Disease Control and Prevention chief. Of the three alternates chosen by voters, two identified with Shah.

Democratic voters hear from delegate candidates at a meet and greet at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School ahead of an election that will determine who votes at the party’s statewide convention Saturday. (Staff photo/Joe Charpentier)

“I think the way the county chairs and the Democratic Party came up with (this venue) is as good as you can get. It allows everybody to participate if they want to,” said county party chair Bruce Bryant. 

Bryant said the biggest concern was making the process available to people who, due to the nature of the summer months, may not be able to participate in person. So they used an online voting tool, and provided technical help for those in-person at the meeting.

“This allows you to stay doing your activities except for 3-4 p.m. when you’re paying attention to your phone to vote,” Bryant said. “You can’t get much better than that.”

The only Senate candidate to make an appearance at the meeting was Dan Kleban. The Maine Beer Co. owner said he started his day on Saturday at the Franklin County Democrats meeting before moving on to Kennebec and Lincoln counties. On Sunday, he started off in York County before coming to South Paris.

“There’s been great turnout … I’ve heard from a lot of people who were excited about my campaign and some are getting to know me for the first time after last week’s debate,” Kleban said. “People are excited for a new generation of leadership.” (Kleban dropped out of the race later Sunday.)

18-year-old Democratic delegate candidate Jacob Eveleth Jr. speaks with county Democrats after discovering his name was absent from virtual ballots. (Staff photo/Joe Charpentier)

The meeting did not, however, go as smoothly as planned. One delegate candidate, Jacob Eveleth Jr., who said he was cleared to be on the ballot, was absent on the ballots provided to over 500 in-person and virtual voters. When the problem became apparent to voters, the mood instantly changed.

Some attendees openly wondered how they could trust the Democrats’ process given such a technical glitch.

When Eveleth discovered the Maine Democratic Party could not find a solution to the problem, he resigned himself saying, “Well, that’s the party.”

“Frustration is all I’m feeling,” Eveleth said, adding that the week leading up to the county meeting saw problems in getting him placed on the Oxford County Democrats website. “I’ve been on the list for two days. My statement’s on the website.”

Asked what his plans are next, Eveleth said he will continue following Troy Jackson and might even consider working on his campaign should he be chosen at the convention.

“He’s going to win this thing,” Eveleth said. “I’m going to do everything in my power to support him, I just wish I could be there in Bangor to vote for him. And I know a lot of people wanted to vote for me. If Troy sees this, I voted for you for governor and I’m going to vote for you for U.S. Senate.”

Before voting closed at 4:30 p.m., Eveleth’s supporters, which included more than just Jackson backers, began adding their signatures to a sheet of paper. Michelle Zagardo of Bethel led the charge.

“The process has changed every 12-and-a-half hours for the last week. … If we’re making this process up as we go, why can’t we make it up this very second?” Zagardo said, adding that she put herself forth as a candidate because she and so many others she knows feel disenfranchised by the party.

Zagardo said she isn’t sure what she is going to do with the signatures other than send them to the Maine Democratic Party to document voters’ frustration with the delegate selection process.