Maine: The AP has called the referendum on whether or not to continue with the “instant runoff” system in favor of the continuation of the ranked choice voting utilized tonight. This is a blow to the GOP in the state, which has benefited from spoiler candidates in the past.
With that race called, we will call it a night here at Daily Kos Elections. Two races remain uncalled: ME-Gov (D) and ME-02 (D), but there is a decent chance that both races will end up requiring the tabulation of the ranked voting, the results of which the state says will be require a week or so to release. In the gubernatorial race, it will be critical, since no candidate at present has over 33% of the vote. In the Democratic primary to challenge ME-02 incumbent GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin, state legislator Jared Golden clearly has the inside track, leading businessman Lucas St. Clair by a 50-40 margin. Even if Golden slips under the 50% threshold (and he is literally three votes beneath the threshold at last check), he won’t need many votes from the supporters of third-place Craig Olson to be pushed over the top.
Next week is a week off for us (Arkansas is having runoff elections, but this only applied to a handful of state legislative races), so the next liveblog will come two weeks from today, when we get down to business in seven states, including New York (federal elections only), Maryland, Utah, and Colorado. Thanks for reading along this evening, and good night!