Maine

For information on federal campaign contributions, please visit Open Secrets.

For information on state campaign contributions, please visit your state's resource.

Information on local, state and federal candidates and ballot measures may be available here.

To see a list of available races, visit the race index.

Many, but not all, municipalities have a dropbox. Dropboxes are usually located outside the municipal office building. Dropbox locations will be posted by the Secretary of State.

As soon as absentee ballots are available, 30 days before the election, you may vote in person at your town office. Voting hours vary by the town; check with your town clerk or look up your town on the Secretary of State's website.

Maine Voter Hotline: 207-558-3333.

The next election date can be found here https://www.vote411.org/maine.

Contact your local Board of Elections for more information.

To be eligible to vote you must be:

• A U.S. citizen
• A resident in the municipality where you intend to register to vote
• At least 18 years old to vote (17 year olds may vote in primary elections as long as they will be 18 by the time of the general election).

If you are a student, you have the right to register in the municipality where you attend school, if you have established residency there. You must meet the same residency requirements as all other potential voters, but may not be asked to meet any additional requirements. If you are a student who is not a resident of the municipality in which you attend school, you cannot register in that municipality.

If you are incarcerated in a correctional facility or in a county jail, the municipality where you are incarcerated is not always your voting municipality, unless you resided in that municipality prior to incarceration. If you are incarcerated in a correctional facility you may apply to register to vote in any municipality where you have previously established a fixed and principal home to which you intend to return.

You may have a non traditional residence, including, but not limited to a shelter, park or underpass. Your residency is not subject to challenge on the sole basis that it is non traditional.

When filling out your voter registration card, you must provide either your states driver's license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number.

If you are a new voter in Maine, you must send a copy of either your Maine driver's license or a utility bill or a government document that states your name and address with your voter registration form.

If you are registering less than 21 days before an election, you must register in person at your town office or city hall, through any motor vehicle branch office, in most state & federal social service agencies, or at voter registration drives. You will need to provide proof of identity and residency.

If you are already registered to vote, you do not need to provide identification to receive a ballot. If you are registering on Election Day, you will need to provide proof of identity and residency.

Voters can call or text 844-338-8743 at any time to reach VoteRiders Voter ID Helpline

Official results are never available on Election Day. Election officials are working around the clock to count an unprecedented number of ballots, and it’s essential that they take the time to make sure every vote is counted.

The certification deadline for the November 8, 2022 General Election is November 28, 2022.

Absentee ballots and challenged ballots begin being counted on Election Day.

Official election results will be uploaded on Maine’s Secretary of State website as they become available. 

You are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependent of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation.

If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.

You can make sure we have safe, fair, and efficient elections for all. Become a poll worker today!

In order to be a poll worker in Maine, you must:

• Be registered to vote in Maine
• Be at least 18 years of age; except students 17 or older may work at the polls as student election clerks for specific elections
• Attend training at least once every two years
• Might be entitled to compensation, depending on the jurisdiction

To sign up, contact your local board of elections.

All polls open between 6am and 10am until 8pm.

You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource.

If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your Municipal Clerk

You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource.

If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your Municipal Clerk

Maine has a hybrid primary system. If you are registered to with a particular party, you must vote in that parties primary. However, if you are unaffiliated with any political party, you can choose which party’s primary you wish to vote in.

Maine uses a ranked choice voting system for Presidential Primaries, State Primaries and General Elections. To find out more about ranked choice voting click here.

If you have any questions about your state’s primary election, please contact your local election officials.

If your eligibility to vote is questioned on Election Day, you are allowed to cast a challenged ballot. A challenged ballot must be counted the same as a regular ballot. The validity of a challenged ballot need not be determined unless it affects the results of an election.

If you are visually impaired, physically disabled, or are unable to read or write, you can be assisted. Accessible voting systems help voters who may have difficulty voting to cast their ballots over the phone. Please ask for more details about this process at your polling location.

Language Access 

Ballots are only available in English. If you or someone you know needs the help of an interpreter to vote, contact the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition. You have the right to bring someone with you when you vote, unless they are your employer or union boss. Voting information is also available from the League of Women Voters of Maine in a variety of languages.

For more information, you can utilize the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD) resource.

Maine allows voters to vote using Ranked Choice Voting for all state-level primary elections, and in general elections ONLY for federal offices, including the office of U.S. President. Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank the candidates in the order of their preference. 

How does Ranked Choice Voting work?

• Voters rank candidates in the order of their preference: first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on.
• When all the ballots are counted, if one candidate gets more than 50% of the first choice votes, they win.
• If no candidate receives more than 50% of first choice votes, the candidate with fewest votes is considered defeated.
• Voters who ranked the defeated candidate as their first choice have their votes counted for their second choice.
• This is repeated until only two candidates remain. The one with the most votes wins.

You are able to register in person up until and on Election Day. When registering in person you must show proof of identity and residency.

You may also submit a paper registration form by mail or by third person as long as it is received by your town clerk 15 days before Election Day. Click here for instructions on how to complete the Maine Voter Registration Application. 

Time off to vote is subject to the employer, there is no requirement for employers to grant time off to vote for employees.

To verify your voter registration status, contact your

The voting systems used in Maine are optical scan and paper ballots.

Optical Scan: With this system, you will receive a card or sheet of paper, which you take over to a private table or booth. The card has the names of the various candidates and ballot measures printed on it. With a pen or pencil you fill in a little box or circle or the space between two arrows. When you are finished filling out all the cards, you may bring the cards over to a ballot box, where poll workers will show you how to put the cards in the box. Or in some places, you may feed the completed cards or papers into a computer device that checks your card or paper right there at the polling place to make sure you have voted the way you want to and counts the votes.

Paper Ballots: Paper ballots are one of the oldest ways of voting in America. They are still used in a few places on Election Day. When you come to the polling place, you will get a paper ballot from the poll worker. You take it to the voting booth, and use a pen or pencil to mark a box next to your candidate and issue choices. You then drop the marked ballot into a sealed ballot box.

You can learn more about voting systems by checking out the Elections Assistance Commission's (EAC) resource.