On this remaining week earlier than the midterm elections, a number of states have seen will increase in efforts to intimidate voters and election officers, together with armed “ballot watchers” loitering round early voting drop bins in Arizona, activists horrifying voters at an early polling station in Texas, and election staff being stalked and shadowed in a number of cities throughout North Carolina.
However not right here in Maine.
The secretary of state’s workplace mentioned Friday afternoon that there had been no indication of any type of systemic effort to disrupt the vote or intimidate voters and election staff. There had been one current incident in Brunswick that’s beneath investigation by that workplace’s Enforcement Division, a department of the Bureau of Motor Autos that sometimes takes on different regulation enforcement duties, however no particulars had been accessible.
“There are expenses pending so I can’t disclose something additional at the moment,” mentioned Emily Cook dinner, spokesperson for Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
The nonpartisan League of Girls Voters of Maine, which works to make sure election integrity and citizen engagement, likewise has seen few indicators of bother.
“Organized efforts to disrupt the electoral course of, particularly teams fueled by ‘the Huge Lie,’ have been sluggish to trickle into Maine, although we take nothing with no consideration,” mentioned the group’s government director, Anna Kellar. “We’re seeing extra poll inspectors and ballot watchers, and these actions have been a bit time-consuming for election officers, although they’ve not often risen to the extent of disruption – no less than not up to now.”
“We haven’t seen something that means that an effort to disqualify ballots en masse is underway,” Kellar added.
Absentee poll requests have already considerably exceeded the final midterm and Maine gubernatorial election in 2018. However the quantity continues to be nicely under the file stage set throughout the 2020 presidential election yr, which occurred within the midst of the pre-vaccine section of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, 532,272 absentee ballots had been issued in Maine.
The secretary of state’s workplace reported that as of Friday morning, 249,865 absentee ballots had been requested, of which 49.5 p.c had been by registered Democrats, 23.7 p.c by Republicans, and the remaining by the unenrolled or minor social gathering members.
That quantity exceeds the full of 196,710 requested ballots in 2018.
The social gathering breakdowns point out Democrats have a slight absentee benefit over their Republican rivals as compared with each 2018 – when these numbers had been 43 and 28 p.c – and 2020, after they had been 46.7 and 24 p.c. A complete of 205,251 of this yr’s absentee ballots have been returned, or 82.1 p.c of these requested to this point.
As of Thursday, absentee ballots can’t be offered to voters besides beneath particular circumstances.
Absentee ballots already offered to voters should be returned by the point polls shut Tuesday so it’s too late to make sure they’ll arrive in time by mail. Voters in possession of an absentee poll who wish to make sure that it will get counted are inspired to drop it off at their native city workplace or deposit it in a safe poll drop field, if accessible, by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, in response to the secretary of state’s workplace.
Whereas Maine officers will not be anticipating voting disruptions, remaining outcomes of Maine’s U.S. Home race within the 2nd Congressional District between Democrat Jared Golden, Republican Bruce Poliquin, and impartial Tiffany Bond will not be identified till the next week. That’s as a result of Maine makes use of ranked-choice voting for federal races with greater than two candidates.
If no candidate within the hotly contested race will get over 50 p.c of the vote after the preliminary rely, the ballots should be transferred to Augusta for tabulation. And, as a result of Friday, Nov. 11 is a state and federal vacation, tabulations of the second selections of the third-place candidate’s voters is not going to be carried out till the next week, Cook dinner mentioned.
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