Politics
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AUGUSTA, Maine — Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is stepping back from her election-related duties and ceding key functions to deputies ahead Tuesday’s primary election that features her on the Democratic gubernatorial ballot.
Bellows normally visits polling places on Election Day and administers ranked-choice voting counts the week after the election in Augusta. Her No. 2, Kate McBrien, will visit the polls in next week’s election and oversee any counts in concert with Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn, one of the country’s longest-serving election administrators.
“While the Secretary of State has never had a hand in ‘counting’ ballots, to avoid even an appearance of conflict of interest, Secretary Bellows has remained hands off throughout this election cycle,” Jana Spaulding, a spokesperson for the office, said in a statement.
The secretary of state’s role in overseeing elections they often participate in has been a partisan bugaboo. Republicans urged Bellows to step back from those duties after she launched her primary campaign last year, while a progressive group went further in 2012 to urge then-Secretary of State Charlie Summers to resign during his U.S. Senate run.
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Bellows is one of five candidates on Tuesday’s ballot alongside former Maine public health chief Nirav Shah, former House Speaker Hannah Pingree, former Senate President Troy Jackson and former clean energy executive Angus King III. Bellows is part of a ranked-choice voting alliance with Pingree and Jackson.