United States House of Representatives elections in Maine, 2020
- Election date: Nov. 3
- Registration deadline(s): Nov. 3 (in person); Oct. 19 (by mail)
- Online registration: No
- Same-day registration: Yes
- Recount laws
- Early voting starts: Oct. 5
- Absentee/mail voting deadline(s): Nov. 3 (received)
- Processing, counting, and challenging absentee/mail-in ballots
- Voter ID: No ID
- Poll times: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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July 14, 2020 |
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The 2020 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Maine took place on November 3, 2020. Voters elected two candidates to serve in the U.S. House from each of the state's two congressional districts.
| Candidate filing deadline | Primary election | General election |
|---|---|---|
Election procedure changes in 2020
Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.
Maine modified its voter registration procedures for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:
- Voter registration: The voter pre-registration deadline in the general election was extended to October 19, 2020.
For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.
Partisan breakdown
Heading into the November 3 election, the Democratic Party held both congressional seats from Maine.
| Members of the U.S. House from Maine -- Partisan Breakdown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | As of November 2020 | After the 2020 Election | |
| Democratic Party | 2 | 2 | |
| Republican Party | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 2 | 2 | |
Incumbents
Heading into the 2020 election, the incumbents for the two congressional districts were:
| Name | Party | District |
|---|---|---|
| Chellie Pingree |  Democratic |
1 |
| Jared Golden | Democratic |
2 |
Voting in Maine
- See also: Voting in Maine
Click the links below for more information on Maine elections in 2020:
Battleground races
Ballotpedia has identified the following Maine elections as battlegrounds:
- Maine House of Representatives elections, 2020
- Maine State Senate elections, 2020
- Maine's 2nd Congressional District election, 2020
- Maine's 2nd Congressional District election, 2020 (July 14 Republican primary)
- United States Senate election in Maine, 2020
- United States Senate election in Maine, 2020 (July 14 Democratic primary)
Candidates
District 1
General election candidates
- Chellie Pingree (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Jay Allen (Republican Party)
- Nancy Farrand (Democratic Party) (Write-in)
- Ian Arthur Leavitt (Independent) (Write-in)
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Democratic primary candidates
- Chellie Pingree (Incumbent) ✔
Republican primary candidates
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
District 2
General election candidates
- Jared Golden (Incumbent) (Democratic Party) ✔
- Dale Crafts (Republican Party)
- Daniel Fowler (Democratic Party) (Write-in)
- Timothy Hernandez (Democratic Party) (Write-in)
Democratic primary candidates
- Jared Golden (Incumbent) ✔
Republican primary candidates
Did not make the ballot:
= candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey
Ranked-choice voting
Ranked-choice voting in Maine
Maine uses ranked-choice voting for all federal and state-level (e.g., governor, state senator, and state representative) primary elections. Ranked-choice voting is used in general elections for federal offices only (i.e., U.S. Congress and the presidency).[1]
Click here for information on the history of ranked-choice voting in Maine.
How ranked-choice voting works
Broadly speaking, the ranked-choice voting process unfolds as follows for single-winner elections:
- Voters rank the candidates for a given office by preference on their ballots.
- If a candidate wins an outright majority of first-preference votes (i.e., 50 percent plus one), he or she will be declared the winner.
- If, on the other hand, no candidates win an outright majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
- All first-preference votes for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots.
- A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won an outright majority of the adjusted voters.
- The process is repeated until a candidate wins a majority of votes cast.
Example
Assume that there are four candidates for mayor in a hypothetical city. The table below presents the raw first-preference vote totals for each candidate.
| Raw first-preference vote tallies in a hypothetical mayoral race | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | First-preference votes | Percentage |
| Candidate A | 475 | 46.34% |
| Candidate B | 300 | 29.27% |
| Candidate C | 175 | 17.07% |
| Candidate D | 75 | 7.32% |
In the above scenario, no candidate won an outright majority of first-preference votes. As a result, the candidate (Candidate D) with the smallest number of first-preference votes is eliminated. The ballots that listed candidate D as the first preference are adjusted, raising their second-preference candidates. Assume that, of the 75 first-preference votes for Candidate D, 50 listed Candidate A as their second preference and 25 listed Candidate B. The adjusted vote totals would be as follows:
| Adjusted vote tallies in a hypothetical mayoral race | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Adjusted first-preference votes | Percentage |
| Candidate A | 525 | 51.22% |
| Candidate B | 325 | 31.71% |
| Candidate C | 175 | 17.07% |
On the second tally, Candidate A secured 51.22 percent of the vote, thereby winning the election.
Note: The above is a simplified example used for illustrative purposes. Specific procedures vary by jurisdiction and according to the nature of the election (i.e., whether it is a single-winner or multi-winner contest).
Candidate ballot access requirements
The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Maine in the 2020 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Maine, click here.
| Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2020 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Office | Party | Signatures required | Signature formula | Filing fee | Filing fee formula | Filing deadline | Source |
| Maine | 1st Congressional District | Qualified party | 1,000 | Fixed number | N/A | N/A | 3/16/2020 | Source |
| Maine | 2nd Congressional District | Qualified party | 1,000 | Fixed number | N/A | N/A | 3/16/2020 | Source |
| Maine | 1st Congressional District | Unaffiliated | 2,000 | Fixed number | N/A | N/A | 6/1/2020 | Source |
| Maine | 2nd Congressional District | Unaffiliated | 2,000 | Fixed number | N/A | N/A | 6/1/2020 | Source |
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2020
- United States Senate election in Maine, 2020
- U.S. House battlegrounds, 2020
- List of U.S. Congress incumbents who did not run for re-election in 2020
- United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2020
- United States House Republican Party primaries, 2020
- Democratic Party battleground primaries, 2020
- Republican Party battleground primaries, 2020
External links
Footnotes
