The Maine Secretary of State’s Office announced Thursday morning that three races are officially moving on to ranked choice voting tabulation, including both the Democrat and Republican primaries for governor, as well as the Democrat primary in District 2.
Given the wide field of candidates running in each of these races, it is not unexpected that they will be subject to ranked choice tabulation.
All three of these races are progressing to ranked choice tabulation because no one candidate received over 50 percent of the vote.
Once tabulation commences, the candidate with the fewest number of votes will be knocked out of the running in the first round.
Votes will then be distributed to whichever candidates were marked as a second choice on ballots cast by those supporting the eliminated candidate. The tabulation of all other ballots will remain the same.
If no candidate has at least 50 percent support at this point, the process restarts.
The candidate with the least number of votes after the first round of ranked choice tabulation is eliminated and ballots are redistributed to the remaining candidates based on voters’ selections.
If all the selected candidates on a voter’s ballot have been eliminated from the running, the ballot is then removed from consideration.
Once a candidate emerges with at least 50 percent of the vote, the tabulation stops and that candidate is declared the winner.
In ranked choice elections, only candidates who emerge in the top three at the end of the next-to-last round of tabulation are eligible to request a recount, unlike non-ranked choice elections where any unsuccessful candidate may do so.
The state hopes to have the results of the ranked choice tabulation ready for these races by June 19, 2026. Official results will be posted within 20 days after the election on the Election Results page.
Click Here to Read the Secretary of State’s Full Press Release
