In Maine, early voting is in-person absentee voting. Any voter can ask their town or city clerk for an absentee ballot, no excuse needed, and fill it in right there at the town office. The state records those as absentee ballots "voted in the clerk's presence", and this site counts them as in person. Everyone else's absentee ballots come back by mail, drop box or hand delivery. Votes cast at the polls on Tuesday, November 3 aren't tracked here.
Source: the Maine Secretary of State's Statewide Absentee Voter Data File, posted on weekdays. It has one row per absentee ballot request with town, party, districts, how the ballot was requested, issued and returned, and the dates. Town clerks enter the data, and the file can miss what a clerk hasn't entered yet. Past cycles come from the final 2022 and 2024 general-election files. Registration comes from the SOS Registered & Enrolled counts of active voters.
Where 2026 stands
By party at the same day
"Same day" means cumulative through days before each cycle's Election Day. "Unenrolled" voters belong to no party. "Other" is Green Independent, Libertarian and, in 2024, No Labels.
Cumulative absentee ballots by day
Each line is a running total by days before Election Day. Maine's general elections fall on a Tuesday, so a given day count lands on the same weekday every cycle. Past cycles run to Election Day; 2026 stops at the as-of day.
Show data tables for these charts
In person at the town office vs by mail
In person = the ballot was voted in the clerk's presence. Mail, drop box and hand delivery are the return methods clerks record for every other absentee ballot. The 2022 file has no drop-box code; drop-box returns that year were mostly logged as delivered by the voter. Electronic returns are for military and overseas voters and voters with print disabilities.
Every county against 2022 and 2024
Cumulative absentee ballots returned in each of the 16 counties, largest first, against 2022 and 2024 by days before Election Day. Each header shows 2026 against the comparison year chosen at the top, at the same day. Click a county to make it the geography for every section.
Requests, ballots issued, returned and outstanding, by party
Requests are accepted absentee ballot requests, including standing "ongoing absentee" requests. "Outstanding" means ballots issued and not yet recorded as returned. Return rate = ballots returned ÷ ballots issued. Ballots voted in the clerk's presence are requested, issued and returned on the same visit. Shares shows each party's share of all requests, ballots issued, returned and outstanding, in 2026 and at the same day in the comparison year; return rates and changes stay as they are.
Each party's cumulative share of absentee ballots returned: 2026 so far vs 2022, same day
Who's turning out, per 100,000 registrants
Absentee ballots returned ÷ active registered voters in the same party, per 100,000 of them, so parties of very different size can be compared. 2026 divides by the March 2026 registration counts; 2022 and 2024 divide by the counts on each Election Day.
The bar runs from 0.5× (left) to 2× (right) on a log scale, with the tick at 1×. The March 2026 counts came right after the state moved about 134,000 voters to inactive status, so 2026 rates run a little high against 2022 and 2024.
Map: where ballots are coming back
Every county or town on one scale. The dashed line splits the 1st and 2nd congressional districts. Click a county to make it the geography for every section; click a town to find it in the table below.
Show map data as a table
Counties, towns and districts
2026 against the comparison year at the same day. Counts from 1 to 9 show as "<10", and shares are left blank where fewer than 10 ballots are behind them. Click a county or district row to select it.
Rejected and replaced ballots
Reasons clerks recorded, 2026 so far
Most rejections here aren't defective ballots. When a voter says a ballot never arrived, spoils it, or it comes back undeliverable, the clerk rejects that ballot and issues a new one, so the voter can still vote. Ballots returned with a problem the voter can fix are "pending cure".