Maine is doing something weird: ranked voting. Voters in the Democratic and Republican primaries will rank their candidates in preferred order. If no candidate gets 50 percent on the first go, the lowest-ranked candidate will be eliminated and the second-place votes of their voters will be distributed. That will be repeated until a candidate hits 50 percent. Beyond the potential chaos of Maine’s overall voting system this year, there will be closely watched primaries for both the governor’s seat (current Republican Gov. Paul LePage is term-limited) and the Democratic primary challenging Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin. Polls close at 8 pm Eastern time. We will have live results for the Senate and key House races below, powered by Decision Desk. Maine governor Democratic primary: Janet Mills leads the field to reclaim the office for Democrats In the best poll we have of the race, Janet Mills — Maine’s attorney general since 2013, and a state lawmaker before that — was way ahead of the field, with 32 percent of the vote. So while she is the frontrunner, she has some credible challengers. Mark Eves, a former Maine House speaker, had 16 percent of the vote, good enough for second place, in the poll we have. State Sen. Mark Dion had 10 percent. Democratic organizer Adam Cote was the other notable finisher, at 9 percent. Maine governor Republican primary: all the major candidates are hugging close to outgoing Gov. Paul LePage Business executive Shawn Moody is the leader in the Republican primary based on the best available polling, sitting at 36 percent. But he doesn’t seem to have a majority and faces several credible Republican challengers. Mary Mayhew — who, as LePage’s top health official, has been instrumental in helping to block the Medicaid expansion — came in second at 19 percent, and she has also said she will continue to obstruct expansion. Garrett Mason, the Maine Senate majority leader, registered third at 15 percent, and House Minority Leader Ken Fredette was fourth with 10 percent. Whoever emerges from both parties’ primaries, the November general election should be competitive. Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up, while the University of Virginia’s Crystal Ball thinks it leans toward the Democrats. LePage is pretty unpopular: 41 percent of Mainers approve of his job performance and 53 percent disapprove, according to Morning Consult. Then again, he’s been elected twice and Donald Trump lost narrowly (3 points) in 2016. Maine’s Second Congressional District Democratic primary: Democrats look for a candidate to challenge Republican Bruce Poliquin State Rep. Jared Golden, bookseller Craig Olson, and nonprofit director Lucas St. Clair make up the field. Golden and St. Clair have the lead on fundraising. Golden is a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and a former staffer for Maine Sen. Susan Collins. St. Clair is a conservationist and the son of Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby. He played an active role in pressing then-President Barack Obama to preserve Katahdin Woods and Waters as a national monument. Two-term incumbent Bruce Poliquin seeks to defend his seat. While Trump took this district in 2016 — marking an unprecedented split of Maine’s electoral votes — Democrats aim to focus on health care in an effort to flip voters. Poliquin was one of the swing votes on the House Obamacare repeal bill, and his vote in favor of the plan is likely to be held against him. Cook says this district is just R+2 (meaning it leans just 2 points toward Republicans compared to the nation as a whole) and rates it Lean Republican.<doc-sep>Maine’s Republican Gov. Paul LePage has threatened not to certify the results of Tuesday’s primary elections in Maine, because the state is using an entirely new system of voting. As Maine voters head to the polls to cast ballots in the nation’s first statewide election using ranked-choice voting (also known as instant-runoff voting), LePage sat down for an interview with the local TV station WCSH-TV, during which he called the new voting system “the most horrific thing in the world.” “I will probably not certify the election,” LePage said. “I will leave it up to the courts to decide.” #BREAKING: @Governor_LePage tells me he will 'PROBABLY NOT' certify the results of today's election, will 'leave it up to the courts to decide'—calling ranked-choice voting the 'most horrific thing in the world.' #NEWSCENTERmaine pic.twitter.com/wrKSofz7ov — Zach Blanchard (@ZachBlanchard) June 12, 2018 That’s left Maine’s other state officials scrambling to figure out what to do next, in the middle of election day. Even if LePage follows through on his threat, there may be other ways to certify the election results. Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap told the Portland Press Herald that he is consulting with the state attorney general on other ways the votes could be certified, though he did not specify exactly how that could happen. “It has to be certified, it is whether he does it or I do it, that is what we are trying to figure out right now,” Dunlap told the Press Herald’s Edward Murray and Peter McGuire. LePage also incorrectly stated that Maine previously had ranked-choice voting in the 1880s but that then-Gov. Joshua Chamberlain got rid of it. The Portland Press Herald was quick to point out that LePage had his historical facts wrong and was “apparently referring to a disputed election for governor in 1880.” Maine’s adoption of ranked-choice voting is largely seen as a rebuttal to LePage, who was elected in 2010 with less than 40 percent of the vote and reelected four years later with less than 50 percent. Besides being known for his obscenity-laced language, the governor has used his power to drag out the implementation of the state’s Medicaid expansion, which passed overwhelmingly via ballot initiative last year.<doc-sep>
The Republican governor of Maine is saying he may not certify the results of the state's primary elections on Tuesday. Gov. Paul LePage (R) said he may decide against certifying the results because of an objection to the state's new ranked-choice system, where voters submit a ballot that ranks votes for candidates in order of preference, according to WCSH-TV. ADVERTISEMENT LePage told the news outlet that the newly installed voting system is "the most horrific thing in the world” and that he "probably" wouldn't certify the results. He said he'd instead let the courts decide. #BREAKING: @Governor_LePage tells me he will 'PROBABLY NOT' certify the results of today's election, will 'leave it up to the courts to decide'—calling ranked-choice voting the 'most horrific thing in the world.' #NEWSCENTERmaine pic.twitter.com/wrKSofz7ov — Zach Blanchard (@ZachBlanchard) June 12, 2018 Maine is using the ranked-choice system for both parties' gubernatorial candidates. In addition, it is being utilized for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, as well as a state legislative seat. “Maine people continually to be [sic] snookered by out-of-state big money and out-of-state people," LePage said, referring to the measure in 2016 that led to ranked-choice voting in the state. In addition to primary voting, ranked-choice voting will be on the ballot on Tuesday. A bill that would delay the voting system's implementation until 2021 was adopted by the Maine Legislature, according to the Portland Press Herald. The bill also states that the system would be repealed altogether if the state Constitution hasn't changed to allow it in general elections for governor and the Maine Legislature. The voting system will not be used in this fall's elections for governor and state legislative seats. The news outlet reports that the Maine Republican Party attempted unsuccessfully to stop its use in primary elections. The party filed a lawsuit in federal court, but a judge declined to hand out a preliminary injunction to block the voting system's use.