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After months of ads on our televisions, social media feeds, radios and in our newspapers and campaign flyers stuffing our mailboxes, it is finally here — Election Day.
According to the Maine Secretary of State’s office, nearly 500,000 Mainers have already voted, an unprecedented number. If you’re eligible to vote and haven’t cast a ballot, you should join them.
Not registered? Bring identification — a photo ID works but so does a piece of mail that proves you live where you say you live — and head to the polls. Maine is one of 21 states that allows you to register on Election Day.
Even if there is a problem with your registration, you still can vote under Maine’s challenged ballot law, so there’s no reason to leave a polling place without having your say. If you make a mistake on a ballot, you can take it to a volunteer at the polling place and ask for another.
If you plan to vote in person, be sure to wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines.
Don’t know where your polling place is? Visit maine.gov/portal/government/edemocracy/voter_lookup.php, type in your home address, and you’ll find out. It wouldn’t hurt to bring identification, though you shouldn’t need it under Maine law.
If you have an absentee ballot and you haven’t returned it yet, you must do so by 8 p.m. on Tuesday for it to be counted. Seal and sign the envelope and put it in a ballot drop box if your town has one or return it to your town clerk’s office, not your polling place, unless they are the same.
If you requested an absentee ballot and haven’t received it or you lost it, go to your polling place on Tuesday to cast a ballot. If you returned an absentee ballot, you can track it using the Secretary of State’s new tracking tool. Do not show up to vote in person if you have an unreturned absentee ballot as this confuses and delays voting. Use the absentee ballot that you were sent.
After you’ve cast your vote, patience is in order.
President Donald Trump and others are trying to sow doubt about the results of Tuesday’s election by insisting that all ballots be counted that night. That has not occurred in previous elections, the New York Times reports.
It is also counter to what Americans want. A recent poll found that three-quarters of Americans favored counting every vote even if it delays election results.
States, not the federal government, are in charge of elections. In some Maine communities, absentee ballots have already been fed into tabulating machines, although no reports of their results have been run. But, in many states, that process will not begin until Tuesday or even later. With such a large volume of absentee and early ballots cast this year, this counting will take time.
Contrary to Trump’s claims, state election officials do not certify their election results on election night, nor are they legally required to. Instead, they must ensure that all ballots are counted and any problems rectified before certifying the results of an election. This is expected to take several days after election days in most states. In Pennsylvania, for example, counting of mail-in ballots won’t even begin until Nov. 4.
In Maine, ranked-choice voting will also slow the process. It is likely that the U.S. Senate race, and perhaps the presidential election, will require ranked-choice voting tabulations. These take several days.
For these reasons, Americans should be wary of election-night claims of victory or defeat. In close races, in-person voting may favor one candidate, while mail-in ballots were heavily cast for another. All ballots, no matter how they were cast, need to be counted to have full and accurate results.
None of this means there is election fraud. Instead, it means that election officials are being thorough and cautious.
University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy has a unique perspective on this. He was elected governor of Connecticut in 2010 in a close race. The final certified margin of just over 6,400 votes wasn’t announced until six days after the election.
In 2000, Malloy noted in a press release on Monday, presidential election results were not finally declared until Dec. 13, after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a Florida recount to effectively end the tabulation of election results.
“Democracy worked in these close elections – as it does in all elections – because people like you and me exercised and respected the most fundamental powers in our democracy: the right to vote, and the right to count our votes,” Malloy said.
We must remember that delayed results aren’t fraudulent results. An undesired outcome isn’t a fraudulent outcome. This next week is likely to be filled with uncertainty and tension. We all must strive, as best we can, to meet these unusual circumstances with calm and patience.