A sign directing voters to a polling site in Durham. (Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
Independent Angus King is favored in his reelection bid for his U.S. Senate seat among the three candidates in that race, a new poll finds.
While he doesn’t currently have a majority of likely voters in Maine, 43% said they would vote for King “if the election were held today,” according to The Pine Tree State Poll from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released Thursday. Seven in 10 Democrats plan to vote for King, while only about two in 10 would vote for their own party candidate, David Costello, who was favored by 9% of voters overall.
Thirty-three percent of Maine voters said they would choose King’s Republican challenger, Demi Kouzournas.
The poll was packed with questions about a myriad of topics including the National Popular Vote Compact, how Maine awards its electoral votes and how residents feel about Gov. Janet Mills’ job performance.
The Pine Tree State Poll surveyed 999 people between Aug. 15-19 using a sample drawn from a web panel of Maine residents and inviting others via text message. Included in the sample were 951 likely general election voters. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
National Popular Vote
The poll also found that Mainers are divided on joining the National Popular Vote Compact, which was approved by the Legislature in April, with the Democratic majority at the State House largely supporting the measure and Republicans mostly opposing it. States in the compact pledge their electoral votes to the presidential candidate with the most overall votes rather than to the candidate who wins that particular state.
That same party divide was reflected by survey respondents with seven in 10 Democrats supportive of joining it and nearly three-quarters of Republicans opposed.
Mills let the bill go into law without her signature , making Maine the 17th state to approve the agreement , bringing the total number of pledged electoral votes to 209.
The compact would only be implemented if states with a total of 270 electoral votes, or a majority of the Electoral College, join so that the compact would guarantee that the winner of the national popular vote is elected president if it takes effect.
In May, citizens and Republican lawmakers launched a “people’s veto” campaign in an attempt to repeal the measure. However, organizers failed to collect the necessary 67,682 or more signatures by the early August deadline — which was a 90 day window to collect — to put the issue on the ballot.
James DuPrie of Lebanon, who submitted the people’s veto, told Maine Morning Star the group was about 15,000 shy of the necessary signature count, but said it wasn’t unexpected and came down to a lack of time rather than a lack of interest.
“It was a high bar to reach in a short amount of time,” DuPrie said.
He added that the group may move forward with a citizen’s initiative, which would give them more time to collect the signature.
Electoral votes
The poll also asked likely voters how they feel about Maine splitting its electoral votes based on the popular vote, rather than using a winner-takes-all system that most states use.
Just under half of Maine voters want to keep the current system, with a little more than a third wanting to switch to a system that awards all four of Maine’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes in the state.
A majority of Republicans like the current system, whereas 43% of Democrats want to make the switch.
Thoughts on Mills
Just over half of Mainers approve of Mills’ job performance, with the majority of her support coming from Democrats and independents. Only about one in 10 Republicans are happy with her work, the poll found.
Mills’ supporters highlighted the way she handled abortion and the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons why they are pleased with her performance. Those who are dissatisfied with her point to her handling of immigration and the state budget as the primary reasons for their disapproval.
In 2023, Mills signed a law allowing for abortions at any point in a pregnancy deemed medically necessary by a doctor. Also under her watch, Maine has seen repeated revenue surpluses, in part due to federal funding in response to the pandemic. But the governor’s maxed out rainy day fund and push for savings were the focus of many objections during budget negotiations. Many Democrats had advocated for more investments and program funding while Republicans called for tax cuts.
Forty-seven percent of Mainers say they are happy with the current direction of the state while 42% feel the state is going “seriously off on the wrong track,” the pollsters report.
Compared to an April 2022 poll, a higher percentage of people now believe the state is on the right track, but more people also feel the state is going in the wrong direction. The earlier poll showed 28% of people were unsure about the direction of the state, but now only 11% said they are unsure.
When asked their thoughts on the most important problem facing the state, a third of respondents said it was housing, with cost of living (11%) and jobs/economy (9%) coming in a distant second and third for top issues.
On Wednesday, the Pine Tree State Poll released its results on how Maine voters are feeling about the upcoming presidential election. It showed increasing support overall for Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, but the race is still up in the air among likely voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST
Local Maine State
Most Popular
Comments / 0