[AUGUSTA, ME] — Maine’s June 9 primary election will conclude with successful tabulations in several statewide Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) races this evening. Election officials’ smooth and transparent implementation of RCV in these races will mark the success of this voting system, giving more choice to voters.
“We recognize the Secretary of State’s office and staff for their commitment to transparency, speed, and accuracy during this RCV tabulation,” said Chrissy Hart, Executive Director for the League of Women Voters of Maine (LWVME). “Transparency and access to the tabulation are important steps in ensuring voter confidence in the full election process.”
The timeline for Maine’s RCV data collection and tabulation process is on par with other states and municipalities that use RCV, and voters should feel confident in what the League have witnessed as firsthand observers: a methodical process to ensure that the process is done efficiently but, first and foremost, with great care and attention to detail. However, we do recommend adopting a policy of providing preliminary results at the end of each day, as occurred in Portland, OR’s first RCV tabulation in November 2024.
As the state continues to utilize RCV, the League of Women Voters will work with election officials to reach a gold standard of transparency, accountability, and accessibility. The League is also working to identify municipalities that would benefit from proportional ranked-choice voting, a method that guarantees proportional representation in races where there are two or more winners, such as city council and school board races.
“The more Mainers use ranked-choice voting, the more they come to love it. Maine people want to use it from top to bottom. In time, we’re going to see more towns adopting RCV for their municipal elections, just like Portland and Westbrook,” said Jen Lancaster, Deputy Director of LWVME.
The Maine Secretary of State is tabulating the RCV race for the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries and the democratic primary for Congressional District 2. The RCV tabulations take place publicly in the Maine Department of Public Safety Headquarters. The tabulations are livestreamed online.
The League of Women Voters of Maine supports election systems for offices in single seat elections that require the winner to receive a majority of the votes, as long as the majority is achieved by Ranked Choice Voting. The League also supports the use of proportional ranked choice voting (pRCV) in elections for multi-member municipal bodies because it more reliably delivers proportional representation than Maine's commonly used election methods.