It's primary day in Maine.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and Republican former Gov. Paul LePage are unopposed in their primaries, as are the Democratic candidates for Maine's two U.S. House seats.
In the 2nd Congressional District, two Republicans are facing off for the right to take on Democratic incumbent Jared Golden in November. They are Caratunk selectwoman Liz Caruso and Bruce Poliquin, who held the congressional seat before being ousted by Golden in the 2018 election.
Maine has seen higher turn-over among municipal election clerks during the past year. So Tuesday's relatively low-key primary elections could be a good test-run headed into the fall.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said clerks and election staff still conduct all of the same steps in an election, regardless of the turnout. For instance, Maine uses paper ballots and poll workers from the major political parties are allowed to observe the voting and ballot-counting process.
"In many ways it's great that we are having such a pleasant, almost easy election for clerks now. We know the November election will be a high-stakes election. There will be a lot of voter interest. This is a great dry run," Bellows said.
Maine voters will elect the governor, all 186 legislative seats and two members of Congress this November.
This story will be updated. For more on Maine's elections, visit mainepublic.org/yourvote.
