Portland Still Counting Ranked-Choice Ballots, Experts Predict Winner By Mud Season

PORTLAND, ME. City election workers entered their second day of ranked-choice tabulation Wednesday as the at-large and District 5 council races moved into additional rounds, with experts now predicting a winner sometime between April and the first good week of black flies.

"We are making excellent progress," said deputy city clerk Marjorie Pelletier, speaking from behind a stack of ballots taller than she is. "We have eliminated the candidate who came in last. Now we need to find out who all of his voters liked second, and then who they liked after that, and then we will probably need lunch."

Tabulation staff described the process as fair and transparent. One clerk said he had personally reallocated the same ballot four times and was starting to feel like he knew the voter. "Her third choice was a write-in for her dog," he said. "I respect it."

Local political scientist Dr. Alden Frye, who described himself as a longtime observer of Portland, said the delay was a sign the system was working as designed. "Ranked-choice voting lets every voter express their full range of preferences," Frye said. "It also lets every clerk express their full range of emotions."

City Hall has set up a viewing room where residents can watch the count live. Attendance peaked at eleven people Tuesday night and fell to one man Wednesday morning who said he had come in to use the bathroom and stayed because it was warm.

Officials urged patience and reminded residents that results would be posted online once the final round is complete or once the clerks are allowed to go home, whichever comes first.

At press time, a group of residents who moved to Portland from Massachusetts last year had filed a formal complaint asking why the city could not simply count the ballots the way they do in Cambridge, before being reminded that Cambridge has been doing it since 1941 and also is not finished.