Election results inMaine comprise voting forlocal,gubernatorial andfederal public offices, members of thestate legislature, as well asballot measures. Congressional elections are held every even year (2012, 2014, 2016), and gubernatorial ones every off-presidential even year (2010, 2014, 2018).
The results of the elections are oftenvaried. Maine is seen as aswing state, with unusually high support forindependent candidates.The Republican Party has won Maine in 11 out of the past 20 presidential elections, and the governorship has been won byDemocrats and independents three times each, and Republicans four times, since 1974.[1][2] Although today Maine is considered somewhat Democratic in presidential elections having voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992. While the governorship remains competitive, Republicans have held both houses of the state legislature simultaneously for only two years since 1974.
Maine has used thecongressional district method for allocating electors inpresidential elections continuously since the1972 election.[3] Despite this, the winner of the state won all the congressional districts until2016, when Democratic nomineeHillary Clinton won all but the2nd district, which she lost to RepublicanDonald Trump, who would later go on to win the election.[4][5] Trump would win the district again in 2020 and 2024, despite again losing the state both times.
Maine is the first state to introduceranked choice voting in elections, and became the first to use it in a presidential election in2020.[6][7]
In a 2020 study, Maine was ranked as the 14th easiest state for citizens to vote in.[8]
Maine used thefirst-past-the-post voting system for all elections until 2017, when it was replaced withranked choice voting upon enactment of the Ranked Choice Voting Act, which had previously been approved by voters in areferendum on November 8th, 2016.[9] The system was first used on June 12, 2018, in the primaries for the2018 United States elections, and Maine became the first state to use ranked choice voting in a federal election on November 6, 2018, when it was used in the main election itself.[10]
Since its enactment, numerous attempts have been made to repeal the act, or delay its effects. After the act was passed in 2016, legislators voted for the suspension of the law until December 2021, thus making it inoperative until the2022 United States elections. This was subsequently vetoed by voters, who gathered enough signatures on a petition to allow the system to be used.[11][12] The state's senate took legal action to attempt to disallow the petition, but theMaine Supreme Court issued a ruling enabling ranked choice voting to be used in the 2018 election.[13] The Maine Republican Party also attempted to block the use of the system in the2020 United States elections via legal action, but the Maine Supreme Court dismissed the suit, allowing Maine to become the first state to use ranked choice voting in apresidential election.[14]
State legislation related to the administration of elections introduced in 2011 through this year, 2020
 Elections and referendums in Maine | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presidential elections | |||||
| Senate elections |
| ||||
| House elections | |||||
| Gubernatorial elections |
| ||||
| Legislative elections |
| ||||
| Referendums | |||||
Augusta (capital) | |
| Topics | |
| Society | |
| Regions | |
| Metropolitan areas | |
| Counties | |
