Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows speaks live as election workers scan ballots in Augusta on Tuesday. David Sharp/Associated Press

AUGUSTA — Maine’s elections chief, a former civil liberties advocate who sparred with President-elect Donald Trump over ballot access, acts like a play-by-play sportscaster as he describes the state’s election process. Determining the convention winner through ranked-choice voting.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows will spend the week livestreaming the proceedings on YouTube and answering questions in real time.

“We hope that when people see this with their own eyes, they will believe that our elections are honest, free and fair. Then maybe they can have a little more trust in the election officials who are working so hard to make this election happen,” Bellows told The Associated Press.



Democratic Rep. Jared Golden led Republican challenger Austin Theriault by nearly 2,000 first-place votes after nearly 400,000 cast in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, but neither received more than 49% of the vote. Therefore, the ranked-choice process will reallocate other votes to determine the majority. announced the office.

The race between Golden and Theriault came to an end as both parties battled for control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Associated Press, which the Press Herald uses for race calls, did not declare the winner, but Golden declared victory, citing Decision Desk HQ, a website focused on reporting election results.

Bellows, who took office in 2021, is the former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, drawing the ire of Republicans. he ruled He said Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection makes him ineligible to run in the state’s GOP primary. Trump emerged and won after intervention by the US Supreme Court.

there was a bellows Doxxed and swatted after her decision Regarding Trump, his address and other personal data were published online, and officers were sent to his home with a fake emergency call. He and his team have also received hundreds of awards. What he describes as “threatening, harassing and offensive communication.”

On Tuesday, attorneys for both candidates, campaign officials, journalists and police watched as election officials opened ballot boxes in the building that also houses Maine State Police Headquarters. Viewers could watch from two different angles, and Bellows would occasionally point his iPad camera at observers or his staff to explain what was happening.

Bellows explained the chain of custody; Election workers in each municipality secured the ballots in padlocked blue boxes sealed with secret codes, secured with padlocks, and taken by law enforcement to an “undisclosed location” constantly monitored by officers and security cameras.

Locked blue metal boxes containing Aroostook County Election Day materials are seen during the ranked choice voting tabulation for the 2nd Congressional District in Augusta on Tuesday. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Magazine

He also talked about digital security; It described the make, model, and purpose of each machine and explained steps to prevent interference from cybercriminals or other malicious actors. None of the machines are connected to the internet, so they can’t be hacked, and logic testing will detect any data mismatches, he said.

After the locked blue ballot boxes were brought into the room by a team that included an armed detective, he invited lawyers from both campaigns to review the tapes and verify that the voting machine printouts matched election night records.

Riault’s campaign manager gave Bellows his seal of approval Tuesday after consulting several times.

“They allowed lawyers for both parties to see the rooms where the ballots were stored. I think it’s a very open process,” Shawn Roderick told reporters in the hallway outside.

Election officials across the country have been troubled by efforts to challenge the results, many of which are misinformed and fueled by deliberate attempts to undermine America’s democracy.

When the hanging controversy in Florida led to the “Brooks Brothers Revolt” in 2000, when GOP operatives tried to stop the counting, the mundane process of tallying votes turned into a spectacle.

Sizzling CCTV videos in Atlanta fueled insatiable interest in the 2020 count after Trump ally Rudy Giuliani accused Fulton County election workers of falsely stuffing ballot boxes. Those doubts remain, although Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger later insisted in press conferences that the results, verified by multiple counts, were valid.

In contrast, Bellows predicts and answers questions in real time. Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, said promoting transparency is a smart response to distrust in institutions and Republican criticism of ranked-choice voting, especially because of Trump’s voting decision.

“I think it was a smart move on his part,” Brewer said.

Ranked voting, which Maine voters adopted in 2016, is used in local races in many places, but few states have adopted it.

This race had only one viable alternative to the top two: retiree Diana Merenda, who officially declared her candidacy to show her opposition to the war in Gaza. He collected 400 votes. More than 12,000 other ballots had no first choice and second preferences must be checked before being thrown out.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows spins around her laptop to show off her in-person audience to livestream viewers during ranked choice voting rankings for the 2nd Congressional District race in Augusta on Tuesday. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Magazine

“Note that what we do first is verify those initial totals and then run the ranked choice voting table so that the second choices of those who didn’t pick Golden or Theriault are included in the count, so we know what the bottom line is, who has 50% between those two,” he said. said Bellows during the live broadcast.

There were some problems; They needed deadbolt cutters to open a padlock whose key had been lost. Bellows announced this with a broad grin, as if to celebrate how every voter’s choice was protected. He then moved on to a detailed explanation of how memory sticks work.

After this week’s final tally, election workers will begin the official recount requested by Theriault, aiming for final results before the Nov. 25 certification deadline.

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