Election 2026
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Mainers have several voter guides to lean on as they finish their homework before Tuesday’s election, ranging from a personalized digital sample ballot to a plain-language PDF.
The guides could help you at the end of a crowded cycle. Voters will settle the U.S. Senate race that could decide control of the chamber, fill the 2nd District seat opened by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s departure and pick a successor to term-limited Gov. Janet Mills.
We decided to make you a guide to those guides. Here they are.
Maine Trust for Local News
The most detailed option comes from the Maine Trust for Local News, which owns the Portland Press Herald and sister papers. Its ballot lookup tool builds a sample ballot from your address, running from the Senate race down to city council, school board and local referendums.
Readers can check off their picks and print a copy. Not every candidate filled out the guide’s questionnaire. The holdouts include many legislative candidates and both 2nd District candidates, Democrat Matt Dunlap and Republican former Gov. Paul LePage.
The Maine Monitor
The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit newsroom, has pages for the top races, every county and every legislative district, which voters can find through another address lookup tool.
In partnership with C-SPAN, it has video interviews with the candidates for governor and the 1st District. The Senate and 2nd District campaigns didn’t make candidates available, so the Monitor compiled clips. It also tracks campaign fundraising down to the legislative level.
Maine Public
Maine Public’s Your Vote 2026 page is built around long-form “Maine Calling” interviews with host Jennifer Rooks. They cover the candidates for governor, both 1st District candidates, Dunlap and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate president.
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and LePage get only links to their campaign websites after they did not sit for interviews. Rooks addressed the senator’s absence during Jackson’s interview. The page also carries video of the station’s Oct. 15 Senate debate in Bangor.
Guides.vote
Guides.vote, a national project, takes a research-heavy approach to the Senate race. It sorts Collins’ and Jackson’s records into 14 issues, including abortion, taxes and the war in Iran, and links each position to a vote, statement or news story.
It’s available in Spanish and as a PDF. The Senate race is its only Maine guide this year.
League of Women Voters of Maine
The low-tech option is the League of Women Voters of Maine’s guide. It explains registration, absentee voting, ranked-choice voting and accessible voting machines in plain language.
It also prints candidates’ unedited answers to two questions. Three Republicans didn’t respond: gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles, LePage and 1st District challenger Ron Russell. For legislative, county and local races, the league points readers to Vote411.org.