Polling stations are closed Tuesday evening and towns that haven’t finished counting ballots have two days to do the job
Voting in Maine ended at 8 p.m. Tuesday, but ballot counting may not yet be complete in all communities due to high turnout and security management challenges polling stations during the COVID-19 pandemic
And it may take several days or more before winners are declared in some races due to the choice of ranking voting
Here’s what you need to know about what will happen with the counting of the ballots today and in the days to come:
Under Maine law, municipalities have two days after the election to complete their work and submit their counts to the Maine Secretary of State’s office. The Secretary of State then has up to 20 days to certify official results
In races where ranked choice voting has been applied, which includes both the US Senate race and the presidential race, if no candidate achieves more than 50% of the total vote in the initial results, the ranking of the elective races will continue at the office of the secretary of state of Maine in Augusta
This process involves bringing all of the encrypted memory devices from the ballot scanners to Augusta There the data about them can be extracted and the voters’ ranked choices can be tabulated to determine a winner, which can take up to 10 days Cities that do not use ballot scanners will see the ballots transported for scanning by a high-speed machine in Augusta, which also collects the ranking data on an encrypted memory device so that it can also be added to totals
Ballots and memory devices are transported to Augusta by bonded carrier and are stored in locked and specially sealed containers to prevent tampering
Maine law does not require an automatic recount But a losing candidate can request a recount within five days of the election Depending on the margin of loss, the losing candidate’s campaign may be required to pay a deposit on the cost of the recount If the results remain unchanged, the campaign may need to cover the cost of the recount
There is no deposit or payment requirement for a recount if the gap between the lead candidate and the candidate requesting a recount is 15% or less of the total votes cast for that position. for recounts beyond this vary depending on the office in question State-wide or multi-county offices require a larger deposit, as do races where the applicant applicant lost by a greater margin in the initial table By state law, recounts must be done within 20 days of the election
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