Maine Begins Ranked-Choice Tallying in Three Competitive Primary Races

AUGUSTA — Maine's election officials launched the complex process of counting ranked-choice ballots Friday, a multi-day undertaking that will determine nominees in both gubernatorial primaries and a competitive congressional race.

The tabulation is happening at the Department of Public Safety headquarters here, where staff members began feeding ballots and uploading data from memory devices collected from across the state. The work follows Tuesday's primary elections, in which no candidate in three key races secured the majority needed to win outright.

In the five-way Democratic race for governor, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah held a narrow lead with nearly 27 percent of first-choice votes, according to unofficial Associated Press results. He was trailed by House Speaker Pro Tempore Hannah Pingree at 23.3 percent, Senate President Pro Tempore Troy Jackson at 21 percent, current Secretary of State Shenna Bellows at 20.7 percent, and former state Planning Director Angus King III at 8.3 percent.

On the Republican side, former federal official Bobby Charles emerged with a commanding lead, drawing 37.7 percent of the vote. Businessman Ben Midgley followed at 20.1 percent, while former Congressman Jonathan Bush's son, Jonathan Bush, sat at 19.8 percent. State Sen. Jim Libby, who withdrew from the race in April but remained on the ballot due to procedural timing, will be the first Republican eliminated when ranked-choice tabulation begins.

The process works by progressively eliminating the lowest-performing candidate and redistributing their supporters' second choices. This cycle repeats until one candidate surpasses 50 percent of the remaining votes.

The Democratic 2nd Congressional District primary is equally tight. State Sen. Joe Baldacci of Bangor leads with 31.6 percent, followed closely by former Congressman Mike Dunlap's son, Matt Dunlap, at 29.3 percent, and activist Jordan Wood at 28.8 percent. Social worker Paige Loud, who received about 10 percent of first-choice votes, conceded the race Wednesday.

Election workers face a considerable logistics challenge. About 155 of Maine's 487 communities count ballots by hand, requiring officials to transport sealed boxes of paper ballots to Augusta. The remaining communities use electronic tabulators, whose memory devices were collected and delivered to headquarters by law enforcement officers over recent days.

Once all materials arrive, staff will scan paper ballots, upload memory device data, and manually enter any ballots that machines cannot read due to damage or improper folding. Only after this processing concludes will the ranked-choice calculation software run.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Kate McBrien said Friday that the exact timing of final results remains unclear.

"What we're going to do is do all of that work, all of that processing and scanning first," McBrien said. "Then we will run the tabulation for the races, so we won't have that until the very end."

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is also the Democratic candidate for governor, recused herself from overseeing the count. The public can watch proceedings in person or via a livestream on the secretary of state's YouTube page. McBrien offered a candid assessment of the viewing experience: "As important as this is, it's not the most exciting thing to watch."