Ballots in Maine’s first ranked-choice election ready for tabulation

PORTLAND, Maine — Nearly a week after Maine’s primaries, the state’s ranked-choice voting experiment is getting real as it becomes a game of mathematical survival.

Ballots from nearly 500 municipalities across the state have been shipped to the state capital and scanned into computers in two Democratic primary races. Now it’s showtime. Under ranked-choice voting, a candidate with a majority wins. If there’s no majority, then there are additional voting rounds in which the last-place finishers are eliminated, and those voters’ second-place selections are reallocated. The process repeats until there’s a majority winner.

Tabulations begin this week, possibly as early as today, in the biggest test yet for a voting system sometimes called instant-runoff elections. But there’s nothing instant about Maine’s process.

It took eight days for someone to concede in San Francisco’s mayoral race using rankedchoice voting. It could take even longer in Maine.

“It’s fascinating politics, in slow motion,” said Corey Cook, dean of the School of Public Service at Boise State University, who has studied 100 elections that used the system.

The system will be used in a gubernatorial race featuring seven Democratic candidates, none of whom received a majority vote. Attorney General Janet Mills was the leader in firstround votes, but that doesn’t mean she’s the winner.

In the vast 2nd Congressional District, which covers most of Maine, it’s possible Democrat Jared Golden could eke out a majority once the first-round votes are tallied. If not, then ranked-choice voting will be used in that race, too.

What happens next is anybody’s guess.

In the governor’s race, Mills led with 33 percent in unofficial first-round tallies by The Associated Press, followed by Adam Cote with 28 percent; Betsy Sweet with 16 percent; and Mark Eves with 14 percent.

In the 2nd District, Golden had 49 percent and Lucas St. Clair had 41 percent.

In ranked-choice voting, the winning candidate isn’t always the one with the most first-place votes. Candidates who have led by as many as 12 percentage points after the first round of tallies have ultimately lost to competitors who had more second- and third-place votes, Cook said.

Proponents say the voting system eliminates spoiler candidates, moderates harsh rhetoric and ensures a consensus winner. Critics say it’s complicated, unfair and potentially unconstitutional.

Ranked-choice voting supporters didn’t seem to be too worried about the long wait for results.

“We want a quality system. If it takes a little longer, it’s worth it,” said Democratic voter Brad Messier of Brunswick. “Our political system has gotten to the point where any change will generate resistance. But things can’t stay the same forever.”

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap compared the process to cascading dominoes. It takes a long time to set up the dominoes, he said, but only seconds for them to fall. In this case, a laptop computer will produce results in seconds.

Democrats appeared to be united in their commitment to the process. The seven candidates all signed onto a statement of support of ranked-choice voting.

Republicans were largely opposed to the voting system, but it didn’t come into play in the GOP gubernatorial primary. That’s because Republican Shawn Moody had a decisive win, claiming 54 percent of the vote in a four-way race.

In addition to using rankedchoice voting for the first time in state primaries, Maine residents also voted to keep the system by nullifying a legislative delay. That means ranked-choice voting will be used for federal elections in November in Maine. Information for this article was contributed by Patrick Whittle of The Associated Press.