What the numbers say
Absentee ballots cast, by days before Election Day
Maine SOS Statewide Absentee Voter Data File (one row per voter). 2026 in bold. Past years are rebuilt from each cycle's final file using the date each ballot was received. In-person absentee = voted in the clerk's office (Maine's version of early voting); by mail/drop box/other = everything else. Rejected ballots excluded.
Ballots received per day: last 14 days (2026)
By date received. Weekends and the Oct 12 holiday are low because town offices are closed. The latest day may still be filling in (clerks enter ballots late).
Party share of ballots returned, same point in each cycle
Party enrollment of voters whose ballots were received by this many days out. "Other" = Green, Libertarian, No Labels.
Return rate: returned ÷ requested
Share of accepted absentee requests with a ballot back, by days out.
By congressional district
Data coverage & gaps
Sources & caveats
- How often it updates: the SOS posts a new statewide file every few days, not daily (Oct 9 and Oct 13 files so far this fall). The box checks for a new file 4 times a day and saves each one.
- Past years are rebuilt, not snapshots. 2018, 2022 and 2024 come from each cycle's final file, counted by received date. A file posted in real time lags slightly because clerks enter some ballots late. Between the Oct 9 and Oct 13 files, Oct 9 grew 8% (5,387 → 5,815) and earlier days barely moved, so only the latest day or two is understated.
- 2024 was a presidential year. 2022 and 2018 (midterms) are the closer comparisons.
- Rejected ballots (final status REJ/RNC) are excluded. A handful of records with impossible received dates (11 in 2018, 2 in 2022, 2 in 2024) are skipped. Party is the voter's enrollment in the file, not how they voted.
- Maine has no separate early-voting system. Voters can request an absentee ballot and vote it at the town office (in-person absentee), which the file codes as "Voted in Clerk's Presence."
Law changes that affect comparisons
Rule changes between cycles can shift how (not just how many) people vote early. Keep these in mind when comparing to past years.
- 2021 · LD 1363 (P.L. 2021, c. 273): made secured absentee drop boxes permanent and added online ballot tracking and a process for curing ballot-envelope defects. The 2026 file is the first to code drop-box returns separately ("DB"); in earlier files they were folded into other return methods. Source
- 2021 · P.L. 2021, c. 398, Part UUUU: created "ongoing absentee" status for voters 65 and older or with a disability, so they get a ballot automatically every election. Source
- 2023 · LD 1690 (P.L. 2023, c. 404), effective Dec 31, 2025: opened ongoing absentee status to any voter and stopped dropping voters from it for skipping a general election. 2026 is the first general election under this rule, so requests start higher and earlier (12,422 ongoing-absentee requests already in the 2026 file). Source