Maine’s Ranked-Choice Voting Delays Leave Key Primary Races Undecided Nearly a Week After Election Day

Nearly a week after Maine voters went to the polls, the final results in three major primary races remain undecided as state officials continue the ranked-choice voting tabulation process in Augusta.

The races still pending include the Democratic primary for governor, the Republican primary for governor, and the Democratic primary for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Each contest moved to ranked-choice voting after no candidate received more than 50 percent of first-choice votes on Election Day.

The Maine Secretary of State’s Office began the ranked-choice tabulation process Friday, June 12, at the Maine Department of Public Safety headquarters in Augusta. State officials have said they expect the process to be completed before Juneteenth, Friday, June 19.

That means voters who cast ballots June 9 may have to wait more than a week before knowing who won some of the state’s most closely watched primary races.

The delay has renewed questions about the cost, complexity, and transparency of Maine’s ranked-choice voting system, which requires ballot data from across the state to be collected, transported, uploaded, reviewed, and centrally tabulated before final results can be announced.

The actual ranked-choice calculation does not take long. Once all ballot data is loaded and verified, the tabulation itself can be completed in minutes. The lengthy part is the process required before that calculation can happen.

Under Maine’s system, municipalities do not simply conduct their own local ranked-choice counts and report final results to the state. Instead, ballot data and, in some cases, physical ballots must be gathered and processed centrally.

Roughly 330 municipalities that use precinct scanners must have their memory devices uploaded to secure, offline computers. Smaller towns that do not use scanners must have their ballots processed through tabulators in Augusta. Ballots that cannot be read by machines must be reviewed and handled separately.

State officials have said the process includes chain-of-custody controls, law enforcement supervision, and public observation. The computers used for the ranked-choice tabulation are not connected to the internet, according to state election officials.

The Secretary of State’s Office has also made the process available to the public through livestreaming and in-person observation.

Still, the delay is significant. In a traditional plurality election, the leading candidate is often known on election night or early the next morning. Under ranked-choice voting, voters and candidates may be left waiting for days as election materials are transported, checked, uploaded, and reconciled.

The cost of the 2026 ranked-choice tabulation has not yet been publicly released as a single, race-specific figure. But the process carries obvious expenses, including staff time, ballot transportation, law enforcement support, secure equipment, software, public livestreaming, and the administrative work required to verify results from hundreds of municipalities.

Those costs come on top of broader ranked-choice voting expenses, including ballot design, voter education, equipment needs, and the additional time required from municipal and state election workers.

Supporters of ranked-choice voting argue the system ensures that nominees have broader support from voters, especially in crowded primaries. Critics argue the system delays results, adds cost, and makes elections harder for the public to follow.

In Maine’s current primary contests, the public may know the unofficial winners sometime between June 16 and June 18, if the state’s projected timeline holds. Official results must be posted within 20 days of the election.

For now, the outcome of three major races remains unresolved, and Maine voters are once again waiting on Augusta to complete a process that has become a defining feature of the state’s modern elections.