AUGUSTA, Maine — About one in five Democratic voters in Maine’s largest city of Portland returned blank ballots Tuesday, and officials said many wrote the word “ceasefire” in a protest over President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Maine Coalition for Palestine had encouraged a “ceasefire” write-in campaign for Tuesday’s primary, and similar protest votes occurred in several Super Tuesday states that include “uncommitted” or other write-in slots on ballots. Last week, Biden received fewer votes than “uncommitted” in areas of Michigan with large Arab-American and Muslim communities.
Biden has faced criticism from those constituencies and progressive voters calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas that after Hamas militants launched a surprise Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,100 in Israel, which responded with a sustained bombing campaign in Hamas-controlled Gaza that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians.
Specifically, the Biden administration has come under pressure for shifting language and only calling for a temporary pause in fighting amid a dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Portland saw 1,024 blank ballots returned in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, according to unofficial results, and that represented 20.1 percent of the total votes cast. By contrast, only 18 of the 1,763 residents who voted in the Republican primary blanked their ballot.
Biden still enjoyed an easy victory in receiving about 73.5 percent of votes, while U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota received 4.4 percent and write-in candidate Stephen Lyons received 2 percent, or 202 votes, according to unofficial results.
Maine does not allow uncommitted votes. Cities and towns officially count votes for candidates on the ballot or declared write-in candidates like Lyons. They also count blank votes, but the state does not keep a list of what all of those ballots say because they are technically invalid.
Portland City Clerk Ashley Rand echoed that by saying she could not give an exact number of blank ballots that included “ceasefire” versus other written statements, although a city spokesperson said “many” of them did.
While both face low approval ratings, Biden and former President Donald Trump coasted to statewide primary victories. Blank ballots were much of a factor on the Republican side. Only 18 blank ballots were recorded in Portland for the GOP primary, which Trump won by receiving about 53.2 percent of votes to 44.1 percent for ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Haley suspended her campaign Wednesday after losing handily to Trump in all of the more than a dozen states to vote on Super Tuesday except Vermont.
The phenomenon looked far more muted in other Maine cities. In Lewiston, 130 blank and “overvote” ballots made up about 13 percent of the 984 ballots cast in the Democratic primary, according to official city results. Biden received 77 percent.
Bangor saw 108 blanks make up about 10 percent of the 1,035 total votes in the Democratic primary, which saw Biden receive about 83.5 percent, or 864 votes, per official results. Bangor City Clerk Lisa Goodwin said she did not have a specific count of any “ceasefire” write-in votes.
A pro-Palestine march and rally is scheduled for Sunday in Bangor, after a similar march in Portland last weekend.
A spokesperson for Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Tuesday that turnout was “very slow” at polling sites she was visiting. Official voter participation data will not become available until later this month at the earliest.
