Carrie Jones

Jun 10, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Bar Harbor Music Festival.

---

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND REGION—Voters from the Mount Desert Island region joined those from across Maine to nominate candidates for multiple races for their perspective parties, June 9.

Some of the primaries had clear victors such as the Democratic Senate race, where Graham Platner cleanly defeated David Costello and Gov. Janet Mills. Mills had stopped campaigning this spring.

Some of the contests, however, were not decided and will instead head to ranked choice voting.

The Democratic race for governor was one of those heading for a ranked-choice count since there was no clear majority winner. Five candidates had a close spread: Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, former House Speaker Hannah Pingree, former Maine public health chief Nirav Shah, and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows at 20.8%. As of press time, Shah had approximately 26.4% of the votes. Pingree was at 23.4% with Jackson and Bellows at 21.2% and 20.8% respectively.

Similarly, the race was too close to call as well for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District where state Sen. Joe Baldacci (30.5%), State Auditor Matt Dunlap (30.1%) and Jordan Wood (28.6%) failed to get a clear majority.

For the Republican primary for the governor’s race, Bobby Charles (37.1%) has a strong lead over Jonathan Bush (20.5%) and Benjamin Midgley (20.3%), but not over 50% of the total votes.

The Mount Desert region didn’t have any contested races for county seats or State legislature. Our story about Bar Harbor’s local races is here.

---

RANKED CHOICE VOTING AND HOW IT WORKS AND WHEN IT COMES INTO PLAY.

Back in 2016, Maine voters approved ranked-choice voting. This allows voters to “rank” the candidates for a position according to preference.

In this year’s primary race, that ranking occurred in multiple places including governor, U.S. Senate, and 2nd Congressional District (federal House of Representatives).

If a candidate received more than 50% of voters “first choice” nods, then that candidate just wins and moves on to the November election. Rank choice doesn’t come into play.

However, if none of the candidates in the primary receive more than 50% of those first-choice votes, rank choice occurs. The last place candidate is eliminated and the second choice of their ballots is redistributed. If there is still no majority, that system continues.

On election night, only the first-choice of voters is reported by town clerks. If rank-choice comes into play, then the Secretary of State office will count the ballots in Augusta after all the cities and towns send their ballots in.

---

BAR HARBOR

---

CRANBERRY ISLES

Results not available at press time.

---

FRENCHBORO

---

MOUNT DESERT

---

SOUTHWEST HARBOR

---

SWANS ISLAND

---

TREMONT

---

TRENTON

---

This images in this story that say “Via BDN” appear through a media partnership with the Bangor Daily News.

Correction and update: At 8:58 a.m. we’ve updated and clarified how rank choice works.

---

HELP SUPPORT THE BAR HARBOR STORY

When we started The Bar Harbor Story, we didn’t know if anyone would read it. But you showed up. You shared. You sent tips. Now—over 400,000 views every month later—it’s clear: people here care about their community and each other.

We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going.

If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship.

It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light.

Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now.

Thank you so much for being here.

Founding member information can be found here.

Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you.