“Trend line is definitely good for Democrats” ahead of monumental election

New reporting in the Portland Press Herald shows that Democrats are maintaining a “wide lead” over Republicans in voter registrations in Maine. Democrats first took the lead in voter registrations earlier this year, becoming the largest bloc of registered voters for the first time in three decades, and now hold a 91,000 voter edge over Republicans and a 47,000 voter lead over unenrolleds.

As Maine people turn to Democrats in record numbers, it’s clear that voters are putting their trust in Democrats to represent their values. Democrats have delivered real progress on key issues that matter to Maine people, from expanding access to health care, to taking measures to lower prescription drug costs, to protecting reproductive rights, while Republicans from Augusta to Washington have continued to block progress at every turn. 

Portland Press Herald: Democrats maintain large lead in voter registration in Maine

By Scott Thistle

August 10, 2020

Key Points:

  • Democrats are maintaining a wide lead over their Republican rivals when it comes to voter registration in Maine, even as both parties enroll more members than either has seen in at least 30 years.

 

  • Data from the Maine Secretary of State’s Office compiled after the July 14 primary shows Democrats now have 386,786 members compared to 295,122 Republicans. That gives Democrats an edge of 91,000 votes. Enrollments are at their highest for both parties since at least 1990, the oldest data readily available.

 

  • Meanwhile, the number of unenrolled voters, who do not belong to any party, continues to decline and now stands at 339,782, behind Democrats by about 47,000 voters but ahead of Republicans by about 44,000.

 

  • “Trend line is definitely good for Democrats,” he said. “I think the Trump era has pushed people in the direction of picking sides.”

 

  • Collins has long enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Maine, winning her last reelection in 2014 with close to 70 percent of the vote. But her votes to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and to support a federal tax cut that critics have said benefits mainly wealthy corporations seem to be dogging her in the polls. And while Collins said she wouldn’t vote for Trump in 2016, she has dodged the question repeatedly in 2020.

 

  • Maine Democrats first took a substantial lead in voter registrations in March, following a new presidential primary that focused largely on the candidates hoping to unseat Trump in November.

 

  • Over the last three decades, Democrats have maintained an enrollment edge over Republicans in Maine, but the current gap is the largest it’s been over that period. Democrats have 31,000 more voters than in 2018 – the year the party recaptured the Maine Senate, increased its majority in the House of Representatives and elected a Democratic governor by a wide margin.

 

  • The new mix gives Democrats 36 percent of the registered voters, while Republicans have 27 percent and 32 percent are unenrolled. The Green Independent Party of Maine makes up the remaining 5 percent, with 41,693 voters.

 

  • “It’s becoming clearer and clearer to Maine people that if they want leaders to represent the values of our state, Democrats are the only option,” Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Mara said. “We’re ready to capitalize on this momentum and elect Democrats up and down the ballot this November.”

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