Maine on track to break its US midterm voter turnout record
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said early voting suggests turnout could reach 65 to 70 percent, and official results from all towns are expected by Thursday.
Maine is on track to break its record for midterm election turnout, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told Fox News on Tuesday, Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu Agency reported.
Bellows said the state has competitive races across the ballot and described Maine's use of only paper ballots as the "gold standard."
She said Maine last broke a midterm turnout record in 2022, when 62 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Bellows said she expected turnout of 65 percent or even 70 percent, noting that over a third of registered voters had already cast their ballots during early voting.
She said it was "highly possible" that the US Senate race would be decided by ranked-choice voting.
Bellows said towns count all ballots on election night and must post the results at voting places, and most will share them with the media.
Her office asked towns to send their results on Tuesday night, although they have two business days to do so under the law.
Bellows said officials would know the official results from all towns by Thursday, and whether the race would go to ranked-choice voting would be known by then or sooner.
Maine is one of a few states that allow ranked-choice voting, a system in which voters rank candidates by preference and lower-ranked choices can be redistributed when no candidate wins a majority in the first count.
The process often delays results, which is why officials in the state typically wait for the final tabulation before declaring some close races.
US midterm elections are held in November of even-numbered years, when all House seats and a third of Senate seats are up for election.
