Nothing has been ordinary as it relates to elections in Maine. From a recording breaking number of absentee ballots, nearly half of Maine voters casted their ballot absentee, to Maine being the first state to use ranked-choice voting in a presidential election.
A widely controversial method of voting, ranked-choice voting or “instant runoff voting, allows voters to choose candidates in order of preference.
If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, they win, and ranked-choice voting is negated. However, if they do not, than ballots are taken to Augusta, which Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap says would likely happen Thursday, and would be processed on Friday.
Recent polls point to the likelihood of ranked-choice voting coming into play in the Maine Senate race, where Sara Gideon is challenging current Senator Susan Collins.
Should the race invoke ranked-choice voting, it could take weeks before a winner is declared.
In Maine, ranked-choice voting was used to determine the second Congressional District race two years ago, and it took a week and two days to declare a winner.
