If no candidate receives an outright majority on election night in the Maine Senate race, it could take a week to determine who the winner is, Sen. Susan Collins told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday.
"If neither of us gets 50% of the vote, then we get into the rather odd ranked-choice voting. … We probably would not know for certain who won for another week," said the Republican, who, according to the polls, is in a tight reelection battle with Democrat challenger Sara Gideon.
Maine has a voting system in which voters can rank candidates in order of preference. The Hill explains that if no candidate gets a majority at first, then the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated and his supporters are redirected based on their second preference.
Such a pattern continues until a candidate receives a majority.
Since the race is apparently so tight, the Maine Senate contest is expected to have the subsequent rounds because neither Collins nor Gideon are likely to get 50% on election night.
Democrats view Maine as a must-win state to achieve their goal of winning back the Senate majority, which would require a net pickup of at least four seats or three seats plus the White House, so that a Democrat vice president could break any potential tie vote.
Two years ago it took Maine election officials a week to determine who won the state's 2nd Congressional District, which also used ranked-choice voting.