How ranked-choice voting could affect Maine’s US Senate and House races
Kate Sullivan fills out her ballot at Woodfords Club in Portland on June 9. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
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Only two names will appear on ballots for U.S. Senate and U.S. House. But ranked-choice voting could still factor into the results of two of Maine’s three congressional races.
That’s because the Senate and 2nd Congressional District races have declared write-in candidates, so voters will be asked to rank their choices among three options.
Write-in candidates face long odds of winning, but they could delay the final results of each contest, since the winner of each race must win a majority of all of the ballots cast — including those listing a write-in as a first choice and ballots that are left blank.
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If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the race will head to an automatic ranked-choice runoff, which could take a week or more to complete.
Here’s how Maine’s ranked-choice voting process works and how it could affect Maine’s top races.
WHAT IS RANKED-CHOICE VOTING?
Ranked-choice voting, approved for statewide use by Maine voters in 2016, allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference in races featuring three or more contenders.
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Voters can rank as many or as few candidates as they choose. Ranking just one candidate is allowed.
If no candidate ranks first on more than 50% of the total ballots cast in the first round, then the last-place finisher is eliminated, the second-choice votes of that candidate’s supporters are reallocated to the remaining candidates, and the results are retabulated. The process repeats until a winning candidate receives more than 50% support.
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Ranked-choice voting will be used in U.S. Senate race in Maine
Ranked-choice voting cannot be used in the general election for state-level offices because of the state constitution. It can only be used in gubernatorial and legislative primaries, as well as federal and municipal races.
WHO IS ON THE BALLOT
Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson will be on the ballot for the Senate race.
Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage and State Auditor Matthew Dunlap, a Democrat, will appear on the 2nd District ballot. And Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree and Republican Ronald Russell will be on the 1st District ballot.
Maine’s governor’s race features three candidates: independent Rick Bennett, Republican Bobby Charles and Democrat Hannah Pingree. But again, ranked-choice voting will not be used in the governor’s race.
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ARE THERE WRITE-IN CANDIDATES?
In two races, yes. The Senate race has six declared write-in candidates, while the 2nd District race has one, independent Gregory Ward, of Limestone. No write-in candidates have been declared in the 1st District race.
The Senate write-in candidates are: Democrats Sigrid Ann Olson, of Cape Elizabeth, and Ashley Webb, of Farmington; independents Brent Andrews, of York, Gina Oswald, of Strong, and Michael Turcotte, of Burnham; and Joseph Steinberger of Rockland, who claims to be part of the “Faith in Humanity Party,” which is not an official party.
Write-in candidates had until Aug. 25 to declare with the state.
Any write-in votes for a candidate who did not formally declare with the state will not be counted and that selection will be considered blank.
HAS A TWO-PERSON RACE EVER TRIGGERED A RUNOFF IN MAINE?
Yes. While it’s more common with three or more candidates listed on the ballot, a runoff for a two-person race is not unprecedented here. That happens when neither major party candidate obtains a majority in the first round of voting.
In 2024, the 2nd District race between incumbent Rep. Jared Golden, D-Lewiston, and state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, went to a runoff after 3% of voters did not select either candidate.
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After the first round of voting, Golden emerged with 48.65% of the vote, while Theriault had 48.11%, neither of which was a majority. The Democrat held a 2,159-vote lead out of nearly 400,000 votes cast on Nov. 5 that year.
In that case, it took a week for the 2nd District ballots and memory sticks from vote tabulators to be collected and sent to Augusta for the runoff. Officials estimated the process would take three to five days to finish.
The runoff began on Nov. 12 and finished on Nov. 15, and Golden was declared the winner with 50.35% of the vote. He was reaffirmed as the winner after a subsequent recount that ended Dec. 4.
PROSPECTS FOR THIS YEAR
A similar situation could unfold this year. If it happens in the Senate race, it would be the first statewide runoff in a general election since the method was adopted in 2016.
In 2020, Collins earned 51% of the vote, despite four candidates being on the ballot. Sen. Angus King, an independent, earned majorities in the first round of voting in three-way races in 2018 and 2024.
In this year’s Senate contest, most polls show a very tight race, with Jackson, the Democrat, holding a slight lead — usually within the margin of error — against Collins.
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A few polls have shown either candidate getting more than 50% of the vote. But polls reflect a snapshot in time, not a prediction of an election outcome.
Of the 26 polls tracked by The New York Times since Jackson entered the race in July, only seven put him at 50% or higher.
If that pattern holds, and enough voters choose to write-in a candidate or leave their ballot blank, the race very well could go to a runoff.
Don’t expect to know the winner of Maine’s Senate race within a week of Election Day if that happens. In the spring, it took Maine election officials nearly 10 days to determine that Hannah Pingree had won the Democratic primary for governor after a ranked-choice runoff.
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Tagged: 2nd district 2026, election 2026, ranked-choice voting, senate 2026
Randy Billings is a government watchdog and political reporter who has been the State House bureau chief since 2021. He was named the Maine Press Association’s Journalist of the Year in 2020. He joined. More by Randy Billings
