Last week was a good week for Maine. On Tuesday, Maine voters experienced a free, safe, and accessible election. Westbrook residents also voted in favor of expanding Ranked Choice Voting to their municipal elections, the second town to do so after Portland.
We're also excited to announce the relaunch of Maine Students Vote, the third organization to join the Democracy Maine collaboration. We're gearing up for 2022 and organizing to reach more students across more campuses than ever before. Interested in youth engagement? Check out our upcoming Town Hall.
NEWS:
Final Wrap on November's Election: For the fifth time, LWVME deployed Maine volunteer election observers to provide real time reports from about 63 polling locations around the state. This included an organized effort of more than 40 volunteers. Our data includes information on the rate at which voters were arriving to vote, the time voters waited in line to cast their ballots, COVID precautions, and whether any irregularities were observed at the polls. Read more here.
Portland’s Delayed Council Race: The City Council race ended in a tie following Ranked Choice runoff last week, a result not announced publicly for roughly 12 hours after the city first ran the tabulation. In this case, Portland seems to have followed its own rules about Ranked Choice Voting, and there is no evidence that the city’s count was erroneous. As the League stated, we would have liked to see officials “go beyond what’s in their own rules” and complete the count in public, particularly given the unlikely nature of the result. Read more here.
WHAT THE LEAGUE IS WORKING ON:
Maine Campus Voting Challenge
Tuesday, November 9 at 2:00 PM [REGISTER HERE]
In collaboration with the ALL IN Democracy Challenge and the Office of the Maine Secretary of State, Maine Students Vote is hosting our inaugural Maine Student Voting Awards Ceremony to honor the great election engagement work students, faculty, administrators, and college presidents coordinated in 2020.