AUGUSTA — And now, we wait.
With candidates in three primary elections falling short of a majority, it’s now up to local clerks to finish their work and for law enforcement to transport all of the ballots to Augusta for a ranked choice vote tabulation next week.
For some candidates, it’s been 12-15 months of raising money, shaking hands and outlining policy positions, all leading up to the primaries on Tuesday.
Now all that’s left to do is wait for final results.
Those results will likely come sometime next week as the vote tabulation moves from election night tallies to a ranked choice vote count.
“Nothing’s done in secret,” Deputy Secretary of State Kate McBrien said. “It’s all very secure. Only law enforcement is moving things. We’re just trying to be as accurate as possible and sometimes that takes time.”
O’Brien is overseeing the June primary because Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is one of five Democrats running for governor.
Election night results show in that race show Dr. Nirav Shah leading the pack with 27% of the vote, followed by Hannah Pingree at 23%, Troy Jackson at 21%, Bellows at 21% and Angus King III at 8%.
On the Republican side, Bobby Charles leads the race for governor with 37%, followed by Ben Midgley at 20%, Jonathan Bush at 20%, Garrett Mason at 11% and the rest of the pack garnering less than 5%.
And, rounding out the ranked choice counts will be the 2nd Congressional District. In that contest, state Sen. Joe Baldacci is the current leader with 31%, followed by Jordan Wood at 29.5%, Matt Dunlap at 29% and Paige Loud at 10%.
The winner of that primary will face former Republican Gov. Paul LePage in November.
For the gubernatorial candidates, it will be at least a three-way race in November. Independent state Sen. Rick Bennett, a former Republican, has already qualified for the ballot.
Two other independents — John Glowa and Derek Levasseur — are challenging the determination by O’Brien’s office that they failed to gather enough valid signatures to make the ballot.
Those who are independent — also called unenrolled — must gather 4,000 signatures to qualify.
Turnout on Tuesday appeared strong for a primary election, said McBrien, who toured more than a dozen polling places throughout the day.
“It’s been a little bit more than we did expect,” she said. “It’s actually been really steady throughout the day.”
When it comes to the ranked choice count, McBrien said it could take a few days to count all the ballots and then just a short time to run the totals through the ranked choice tabulation.
“Our process is extremely fair, free and secure,” she said. “What’s really good for all Maine residents is when we do the ranked choice tabulation we’re going to live stream the entire thing.”