The Maine Reason

Canvassers in just across Maine state lines in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

“47 minutes,” bragged one voter, pointing to the back of a long line of voters where Mainers came to cast their ballots. “That’s how long I waited in this line.” His cheeks were rosy and his teeth were chattering after braving the North’s November cold for almost an hour. He wore this allocation of time as a badge of honor— Mainers are like that. Voters-to-be dressed in their winter parkas and donned their warmest scarves to steward the fate of this country’s democratic republic through this next election. The line outside of the Kittery Community Center in Southern Maine stretched for over a mile.

Voters waiting in line outside the Kittery Community Center in Kittery, Maine.

Maine is a state that is typically forgotten during major presidential elections. Candidates from either party seldom stop for rallies in this state of only 1.4 million; their four Electoral College votes are rather predictable and deemed unimportant. Maine, alongside Nebraska, is one of the only two states in the nation that split their Electoral College votes. Maine awards two of its four electoral votes to the statewide winner, but also allocates an electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each of its two congressional districts.

Where Mainer’s votes really count is when it comes to deciding Senate elections. This year, incumbent Susan Collins’ (ME-R) defends her seat in the senate. Even before the Democrats had nominated a candidate to take her on, money from out-of-state began to flow into her opponent’s coffers after Collins voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018. Challenger Sarah Gideon (ME-D) stepped forward. More than $100 million dollars has been spent on this election alone, making this the costliest election Maine has ever seen.

A pro-Gideon canvasser outside the voting center in Kittery, Maine.

This election was deemed one of the most important on a national scale. For the senate to be flipped to a Democrat majority, dethroning Collins and replacing her with Gideon is of paramount priority. Being one of the last truly moderate Republicans in Congress, Collins is the last of a dying breed. But this puts her in a compromising position because wave elections tend to flush moderates out to sea. Collins stresses her centrist credentials, often reminding Mainers that an annual study from Georgetown University has ranked her as the Senate’s most bipartisan member for seven consecutive years. Gideon argues that this reputation is outdated—that Collins “has lost her way”, is “putting someone else’s interests above ours”, and has become a rubber-stamp for the right.

A canvasser outside the voting center in Kittery, Maine beating her drum and calling for an obscure 3rd party vote.

To say that tensions are running high in the state would be an understatement. The Kittery Trading Post, Maine’s largest firearm retailer, has almost entirely cleaned their shelves. “We’ve sold thousands of guns in the last few months,” says employee Mark Gorman. “Look around you. You’ve never seen our gun racks and cases this empty. And ammunition? Forget about it.” Firearm companies cant manufacture guns fast enough to keep up with the demand. The only ammunition left on the shelves is turkey-load shotgun shells. But people aren’t worried about turkey this year.

Depleted stock of ammunition at the Kittery Trading Post in Maine.

“Everyone has collectively decided they need their guns,” says Gorman. “But they can’t seem to decide on what they need them for. The Democrats are buying guns because they think a Biden win will trigger white supremacist attacks. The Republicans are buying guns because they think a Trump win will trigger similar George Floyd riff-raff.” Nobody yet knows who to point their fingers at— or the barrels of their guns— but the fear of civil unrest following the election has gripped Maine tightly by the throat.

Sparse gun racks at the Kittery Trading Post in Maine.