2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Maine

2020 United States presidential election in Maine

2020 United States presidential election in Maine

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The 2020 United States presidential election in Maine was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated.[1] Maine voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate California Senator Kamala Harris. Maine has four electoral votes in the Electoral College.[2] Unlike all other states except Nebraska, Maine awards two electoral votes based on the statewide vote, and one vote for each congressional district.

Quick Facts Turnout, Nominee ...

On election day, Biden carried Maine at-large by nine percentage points and the 1st congressional district by 23 percentage points, garnering three electoral votes. However, the rural 2nd district backed Trump by more than seven percentage points, giving him one electoral vote. This was the same result as 2016, and as such marked only the second time since 1828 that Maine split its electoral votes.[3]

Maine became the first state to use ranked-choice voting for a presidential general election, with voters able to rank their preferred candidates on the ballot.[4] Majorities were reached in the first round of voting statewide and in each congressional district, so ranked-choice voting tabulation was not required.[5]

Biden performed strongly with college-educated[6] voters to win Maine.[7] Maine weighed in for this election as 5% more Democratic than the national average.

Primary elections

The primary elections were held on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020.

Republican primary

Incumbent President Donald Trump ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and thus he received all of Maine's 22 delegates to the 2020 Republican National Convention.[8]

More information Candidate, Votes ...

Democratic primary

Joe Biden won the state primary. Opponent Bernie Sanders won the Maine caucus in 2016.

More information Candidate, Votes ...
Results by county
  Biden—30–40%
  Biden—40–50%
  Sanders—30–40%

Libertarian nominee

  • Jo Jorgensen, Psychology Senior Lecturer at Clemson University

Green nominee

Alliance nominee

General election

Ballot access

The Libertarian Party was recognized by Maine as an official party in June 2016 but lost that status in December 2018. To qualify for ballot access, Jorgensen was required to submit 4,000 petition signatures to the state by August 3. Jorgensen sued the state for a reduction of the signature requirement, citing an increase in the difficulty of petitioning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[13] Jorgensen was successful in appearing on the ballot.

Final predictions

More information Source, Ranking (statewide) ...

Polling

Graphical summary (statewide)

Aggregate polls

More information Source of poll aggregation, Dates administered ...

Statewide polls

More information Poll source, Date(s) administered ...

Maine's 1st congressional district

Graphical summary

Aggregate polls

More information Source of poll aggregation, Dates administered ...

with Donald Trump and Joe Biden

More information Poll source, Date(s) administered ...

Maine's 2nd congressional district

Graphical summary

Aggregate polls

More information Source of poll aggregation, Dates administered ...

with Donald Trump and Joe Biden

More information Poll source, Date(s) administered ...
More information Former candidates, Poll source ...
More information Hypothetical polling, Poll source ...

Results

Statewide (2 electoral votes)

More information Party, Candidate ...

1st congressional district (1 electoral vote)

More information Party, Candidate ...

2nd congressional district (1 electoral vote)

More information Party, Candidate ...

By county

More information County, Joe Biden Democratic ...
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Biden won one of the two districts. Trump won the other district, which also elected a Democrat.

More information District, Biden ...

Analysis

Biden carried Maine by a 9.07% margin over Trump, improving over Hillary Clinton's 3% win margin in 2016. Biden handily carried Maine's 1st congressional district by 23%, while Trump carried its 2nd congressional district by 7.4%, winning a single electoral vote from the state. This marked the first election in history in which Maine and Nebraska both split their electoral votes. Ranked-choice tabulation was ultimately not used as Biden earned a majority statewide and in the 1st district, while Trump earned a majority in the 2nd district. Biden narrowly flipped Kennebec County (home to the state capital, Augusta) four years after Clinton lost it. All other counties favored the same party they did in 2016.[29]

Maine is located in New England, an area that has become a Democratic Party stronghold. It was once a classic Rockefeller Republican state, but social issues have moved it to the Democratic column. The last Republican to win all its electoral votes was George H. W. Bush in 1988. Per exit polls by the Associated Press, Biden's strength in Maine came from liberals, with Biden winning whites 54%–44%, including 56% of white women. Biden was even competitive with Trump among Maine's gun owners, a traditionally Republican interest group, capturing 42% of their vote to Trump's 57%.[30]

This was the first presidential election since 2004 in which Maine's 2nd congressional district backed the losing candidate, and the 2nd district is the only part of the so-called Blue Wall which Trump won in 2020, referring to states and electoral-vote areas that voted Democratic in every election from 1992 to 2012; Biden thus became the first Democrat since 1976 to win the White House without carrying this district, and consequently also the first since said election to win without carrying all of the electoral votes located in New England. Biden also became the first Democrat since 1892 to win the White House without carrying Androscoggin County, the first since 1976 to do so without carrying Aroostook, Franklin, Oxford, Penobscot, or Washington counties, and the first since 1992 to do so without carrying Somerset County.

Edison exit polls

More information Demographic subgroup, Biden ...

See also

Notes

  1. Candidate withdrew during absentee voting, shortly before the date of the election.
  2. Candidate withdrew following the New Hampshire primary, when absentee voting had already begun.
  3. Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined.
  4. Key:
    A – all adults
    RV – registered voters
    LV – likely voters
    V – unclear
  5. Did not vote with 1%; "Don't recall" and would not vote with 0%
  6. Overlapping sample with the previous SurveyMonkey/Axios poll, but more information available regarding sample size
  7. With voters who lean towards a given candidate
  8. "Someone else" with 2%
  9. Standard VI response
  10. De La Fuente (A) with 1%
  11. Reassigning the second and third preferences of non-Biden/Trump voters
  12. "No second choice"/"no third choice" with 1%
  13. "One of the minor party candidates" with 4%
  14. "All other candidates" with 6%
  15. "Refused" with 2%; De La Fuente (A) with no voters
  16. Ressigning the second preferences of Hawkins and Jorgensen voters
  17. "Refused" with 2%; De La Fuente (A), "No second preference" and "Someone else" with 1%; Hawkins (G) with 0%; Jorgensen (L) with no voters
  18. If the only candidates were Biden and Trump
  19. "A minor party candidate" with 4%
  20. "Refused" with 1%; Fuente (A) and "Other" with 0%
  21. "Refused" with 1%; Fuente (A) and Hawkins (G) with 0%; Jorgensen (L) and "Other" with no voters
  22. Topline after Ranked-Choice Voting is used
  23. "Someone else" with 0%; would not vote with 1%
  24. Includes "Refused"
  25. "Someone else" with 0%
  26. Would not vote with 1%
  27. "Someone else" with 8%; "Prefer not to say" and would not vote with 1%
  28. "Someone else" and would not vote with 3%
  29. "Some other candidate" with 7%
  30. If only Biden and Trump were candidates
  31. "One of the minor party candidates" with 5%
  32. "Someone else" with 3%
  33. "Refused" and "Someone else" with 1%; De La Fuente (A) with no voters
  34. "A minor party candidate" with 5%
  35. "Refused" with 2%; Fuente (A) with 0%; "Other" with no voters
  36. "Someone else" with 1%
  37. "Someone else" with 9%; "Prefer not to say" with 2%; Would not vote with 1%
  38. Additional data sourced from FiveThirtyEight
  39. "Someone else" with 2%; would not vote with 4%
  40. "One of the minor party candidates" with 6%
  41. Did not vote, "Don't recall" and would not vote with 0%
  42. After three rounds of ranked choice voting
  43. With Ranked Choice Voting
  44. "Refused" with 1%; "Someone else" with 0%; De La Fuente (A) with no voters
  45. "A minor party candidate" with 3%
  46. "Refused" with 1%; "Other" with 0%; Fuente (A) with no voters
  47. "Refused" with 1%; Fuente (A) and "Other" with no voters
  48. "Someone else" with 8%; "Prefer not to say" and would not vote with 2%
  49. "It depends on who the Democratic candidate is" and "Undecided at this time" with 15%
  50. "Consider voting for Trump" with 15%; Undecided with 5%
  51. "It depends on who the Democratic candidate is" with 15%; "Undecided at this time" with 16%
  52. "It depends on who the Democratic candidate is" with 14%; "Undecided at this time" with 14%
Partisan clients
  1. AFSCME endorsed Biden prior to this poll's sampling period
  2. The pollster exclusively supports Democratic candidates

References

  1. Kelly, Ben (August 13, 2018). "US elections key dates: When are the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential campaign?". The Independent. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  2. Thistle, Scott (September 6, 2019). "Gov. Mills allows ranked-choice voting in Maine's presidential elections". Press Herald. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  3. "A Timeline of Ranked-choice Voting in Maine" (PDF). Maine Department of the Secretary of State.
  4. "Maine 2020 President exit polls". www.cnn.com. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  5. Staff, N. P. R. (November 3, 2020). "Maine Live Election Results 2020". NPR. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  6. "Maine Republican Delegation 2020". The Green Papers. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  7. "Maine Election Results 2020". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  8. "March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election: Tabulation of Votes". State of Maine Department of the Secretary of State, Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  9. Shepherd, Michael (July 31, 2020). "Libertarian presidential candidate sues Maine in bid to loosen ballot access rules". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  10. "2020 POTUS Race ratings" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  11. "POTUS Ratings | Inside Elections". insideelections.com. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  12. "Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball » 2020 President". crystalball.centerforpolitics.org. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  13. 2020 Bitecofer Model Electoral College Predictions Archived April 23, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, Niskanen Center, March 24, 2020, retrieved: April 19, 2020.
  14. David Chalian; Terence Burlij. "Road to 270: CNN's debut Electoral College map for 2020". CNN. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  15. "Forecasting the US elections". The Economist. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  16. "2020 Election Battleground Tracker". CBS News. July 12, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  17. "ABC News Race Ratings". CBS News. July 24, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  18. "2020 Election Forecast". FiveThirtyEight. August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  19. "U.S. President by Congressional District". Maine Department of the Secretary of State. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  20. "Maine presidential election results 2020: Live results and polls". www.nbcnews.com. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  21. "Maine Voter Surveys: How Different Groups Voted". The New York Times. November 3, 2020. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
  22. "Maine 2020 President exit polls". www.cnn.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  23. "Maine Exit Polls: How Different Groups Voted". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.

Further reading


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