Politics
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Maine election officials in Augusta are pushing hard to have final results in at least three ranked-choice primary races within nine days.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Secretary of State’s office is poised to announce which races will be moving on to ranked-choice tabulation, according to Kate McBrien, the secretary’s top deputy and chief of staff. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows stepped back from typical election duties because she’s a gubernatorial candidate currently in the mix in a tight Democratic primary.
After Tuesday night’s primaries, officials expect the Democratic and Republican governor’s races and the four-way Democratic 2nd Congressional District primary to head to ranked-choice counts, as the Bangor Daily News and Decision Desk HQ have already projected.
Former Maine public health chief Nirav Shah currently leads the Democratic gubernatorial primary, but former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree, former state Senate President Troy Jackson and Bellows are all within striking distance.
At 37% support, attorney Bobby Charles has a commanding lead among Republicans, but former fitness executive Ben Midgley and entrepreneur Jonathan Bush each have about 20%, forcing the race to a ranked-choice count.
And in a fight to face Republican former Gov. Paul LePage in the 2nd Congressional District, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, holds a narrow lead over State Auditor Matt Dunlap and former congressional aide Jordan Wood.
Towns have two days to get official results submitted to Augusta, so those numbers should get there by sometime Thursday.
Only law enforcement can transport election material, McBrien noted. So a mix of state troopers, Marine Patrol, local police, game wardens — “anyone who’s available and can spare a few people” — go to every town to pick up memory sticks from tabulators or paper ballots that had to be hand counted and bring them all back to Augusta, McBrien said.
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“We’ve been planning this for weeks,” she said. “If everything comes in on time we’re hoping to start the ranked-choice voting tabulation process this Friday.”
That process entails state election staff uploading data from memory sticks one by one and scanning through paper ballots or hand counting them. The uploading of each town’s results alone takes a few days.
Once complete, the state runs the tabulation on computers that have not been connected to the internet with a program on them to run the tallies. That process takes far less time than the initial uploading of town results.
The process is open to press, campaigns and the public through a livestream on YouTube. Election officials hope to wrap up everything before the Juneteenth holiday next Friday.