Election officials expect a week to count votes with the new system.
Ivan Pereira | October 6, 2020
Even before a victor is declared for this year’s elections, Maine will be making history.
The state will be the first in the union to decide the presidential and congressional elections through a ranked-choice voting ballot. Unlike a traditional winner-take-all plurality ballot, ranked choice voters are asked to list their candidates in order of preference and the victor is decided through a process of elimination based on those rankings.
Maine voters have become familiar with the process since they approved in a ballot measure in 2016 and used it in subsequent elections, according to Dan Shea, the chair of the department of government at Colby College.