How ranked-choice voting will work in Maine’s 2024 elections

By Michael Shepherd, Bangor Daily News Staff

A version of this story was published ahead of the 2022 election. It has been updated to reflect this year’s circumstances.

Ranked-choice voting counts are expected to take just over a week to finish if they are needed after Maine’s busy set of Tuesday elections.

The voting method that passed in a 2016 referendum will only be used in this year’s presidential and congressional elections. Recent polls suggest that it may not come into play in any of those races, but all eyes could turn here on the narrow chance that big races depend on it.

Here’s a refresher on how the system works and how the count is done.

How does ranked-choice voting work?

Ranked-choice voting only applies to elections with more than two candidates. It differs from traditional elections in which a candidate who gets a plurality of votes wins. Voters can choose multiple candidates in order of their preference. 

A winner is declared if a candidate wins an outright majority in the first round of voting. But if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of total votes, the last-place finisher is eliminated and the second choices of their voters are then considered and reallocated to the remaining candidates. This process repeats until a winner emerges with a majority of votes in a final round of voting.

On Tuesday’s ballot, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are on the ballot with three third-party candidates. Since Maine awards two of its four presidential electors to the statewide winner and one each to the person who wins each congressional district, a maximum of three ranked-choice counts could come into play.

There are four candidates for U.S. Senate in Maine this year, as well as three for Maine’s 1st Congressional District. Voters in the 2nd Congressional District will use a ranked-choice ballot, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Republican Austin Theriault are the only candidates on the ballot, although Diana Merenda of Surry is running as a write-in candidate.

Do you have to rank every candidate on the ballot?

No. If you rank just one candidate, your vote remains with them throughout the ranked-choice process. You are also allowed to rank your candidate first, second and third, but it is no different than ranking one candidate alone. The only way your vote is ever transferred to a second-choice candidate is if your first-choice candidate is eliminated. 

There is no downside to ranking all the candidates. It ensures that your vote will never be “exhausted” — the term for a ballot that does not rank a continuing candidate. If that happens, your vote ends with your last-ranked candidate who was eliminated.

What mistakes can be made while ranking choices?

The secretary of state’s office has a handy guide on how to mark your ballot. There are a few things you should avoid because they either will or could void your vote.

Don’t rank two candidates first. That is an invalid “overvote” that leads to your vote getting thrown out because it is impossible to determine which candidate you favored. 

Don’t skip more than two rankings. If you rank a first choice, skip rounds two and three and then mark a fourth choice, only your first choice will be counted. If you skip the first and second choice to rank a third and fourth choice, your ballot will not be counted.

Don’t skip the first choice. If you just rank a second choice, your municipality will record your vote as a blank in the first round of voting. If the race goes to a ranked-choice count, your second choice would be counted as your first choice. But don’t risk it.

How are ranked-choice voting results reported?

It is slower. The way you typically learn about the outcome of elections in Maine is through municipal clerks reporting unofficial results to media outlets that project outcomes. Those are  confirmed when official results are tallied by the secretary of state’s office.

In ranked-choice elections, those initial reports only include first-round choices. If it appears that no candidate in a federal race will win a majority, the secretary of state’s office will announce that a ranked-choice count will take place the week after the election, said Emily Cook, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat.

A few days after Election Day, state police would begin collecting ballot information from cities and towns and transporting it to Augusta for the tabulation. The ranked-choice count is a public proceeding. Winners are announced by the secretary of state at a live-streamed news conference that features a spreadsheet generated in real time before the media and candidates.