We’re living through an unprecedented, tumultuous time in modern American politics. Division in our Legislature reflects serious divisions in the electorate, which remain potent and evident right here in Maine. New threats to the democratic process seem to emerge every year through mis- and disinformation.
Democracy Maine’s new report assesses the health of Maine’s government and democracy. This is the fourth update of the report, with the first edition released in April 2020. Each chapter highlights important positive or negative trends. Where possible, the report compares Maine with other states to provide a larger context.
“We are experiencing a constitutional crisis as the federal administration coalesces executive power, diminishing other branches of government, and slowly eroding checks and balances, ” said Anna Kellar, Executive Director for Democracy Maine. “Yet, Maine’s democracy remains tenacious and strong. We have a foundation of strong voting rights and well-run elections, which we must work to maintain. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but Mainer’s should feel proud of their state for leading the way with democracy reform.”
Click here to read the report.
The report offers an objective perspective on Maine’s democracy in key areas: an analysis of our representative government, the effect of poverty and housing on voter turnout, voting rights and barriers to voting, election methods, conduct of elections, money in politics, newspapers and media access, judicial system, and county government.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Maine’s legislature, though a bit older than the population at large, reflects the partisan split among voters themselves. Maine does not have a significant partisan skew in its legislature through gerrymandering or other systemic biases.
- Maine continues to enjoy voter turnout that is among the highest in the nation, although we continue to see significant turnout differences between affluent districts and poorer districts.
- Maine has a healthy number of local newspapers for a state our size, but it’s fewer than it was even two years ago. Maine is also at the leading edge of a national experiment with non-profit journalism. However, Maine is not immune from the national trend: social media has become the dominant delivery platform for “news,” which increasingly means exposure to inaccurate or misleading content.
- Maine leads the nation in protecting voting rights with same-day registration, no photo identification requirement, and no felony disenfranchisement (for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people). Full implementation of automatic voter registration in 2022 and online voter registration in 2024 are removing further barriers to voter registration and participation. Some of these measures are threatened by pending state and federal action.
- Although we are still working for full implementation of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), Maine has led the nation in the use of RCV for state and federal elections. Maine also joined a growing super-majority of states in abandoning presidential caucuses in favor of presidential primaries. Semi-open primaries were available to Maine voters for the first time in 2024, and 17% of primary voters were unenrolled.
- Our judicial system is also chronically underresourced, both as to the number of vacancies on the court as well as the availability of legal services for indigent parties.
- County government in Maine is a backwater of poor visibility, low citizen engagement, uncertain transparency, and sub-standard representation.
The report examines and assesses the state of democracy in Maine using publicly-available data, published reports, and research conducted by Democracy Maine, a collaboration of three organizations including the League of Women Voters of Maine, and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, and Maine Students Vote.