AUGUSTA, Maine — Today is the last day to vote by absentee ballot at municipal offices across Maine ahead of the presidential primaries on Tuesday.
Thursday is the last day that Maine residents can request an absentee ballot or vote in the presence of a local clerk. After Thursday, Mainers can only request absentee ballots if special circumstances exist. If you have already requested an absentee ballot, you have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return it to your clerk.
Maine’s Tuesday election is headlined by the Republican and Democratic presidential primary elections, though a special election for a South Portland seat in the Maine Legislature and a smattering of local races will also be decided. It is Maine’s first “semi-open” primary, meaning that unenrolled voters can choose to vote in one party’s election.
Former President Donald Trump and his last active opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, will be on the ballot alongside three other Republicans — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and businessman Ryan Binkley — who have dropped out.
President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota are on the Democratic ballot, with write-in candidate Stephen Lyons of Maryland also eligible for votes.
Those races will be conducted by ranked-choice voting, although the Maine Republican Party will only consider the first round of voting in awarding national convention delegates. A poll of Maine released last week by the University of New Hampshire found that Trump and Biden have huge leads going into Election Day.
Voters in part of South Portland will also decide who fills the seat of the late Rep. Lois Reckitt, a Democrat who died in October. Democrat Matthew Beck, a retired union organizer, is running against independents Tristram Howard and Brendan Williams.