2018 Election Live Results
Overview
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On this Page: U.S. Senate, Governor, U.S. Representative (14 congressional districts)
Results Expected: After 8:00 PM Eastern Time
The state uses ranked-choice voting for U.S. Senate and U.S. House races where no candidate receives a majority of the vote on Election Day. On the ballot, voters can choose their candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote from all voters' first choice, all ballots are sent to Augusta and the ranked-choice process begins under the direction of the Secretary of State. The lowest-ranked candidate from Election Day is eliminated with those voters' 2nd preference allocated to the remaining candidates. If that brings someone to a majority, the election is over. If not a similar process continues until only two candidates remain. The candidate receiving the majority in that round is the winner.
U.S. Senate
Sen. Angus King (I) is favored to win a 2nd term. Independent King caucuses with the Democratic Party. 2020: Sen. Susan Collins (R, 4th term)
Governor
Gov. Paul LePage (R) cannot run due to term limits. The election to replace him looks to be highly competitive. Ranked-choice voting is not being used in this race, so we'll have a winner on Election Day even if that person doesn't receive a majority of the vote in this three-person field.
U.S. House
2 Congressional Districts: 1 Democrat | 1 Republican
Highly Competitive: 2nd
This is the one race we're tracking where ranked-choice voting may come into play. If that happens, we probably won't have a projected winner on Election Day. Incumbent Bruce Polquin (R) is seeking a 3rd term in this district where Donald Trump won an electoral vote in 2016. However, Democrats held the district for the two decades before Polquin. Polling has indicated a very tight race.
There are two independents in this race. In the aggregate they will likely only garner a few percent of the vote. However, in such a close race, that might be enough to keep both Polquin and Democrat Jared Golden below 50%, kicking off the ranked-choice voting process (see Overview, above).
