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Democratic-leaning voters appeared to be more enthusiastic for the midterm elections — a potentially troubling sign for Republicans looking to hold onto an important U.S. Senate seat while trying to take control of the Blaine House and state Legislature.

With about 93% of the expected votes counted in Tuesday’s primary, both parties have already exceeded the number of ballots cast in the last competitive primary. But Democrats saw the largest gains, driven in part by independents who can now vote in party primaries.

Ronald Schmidt, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine, thinks Democrats had higher turnout because of the attention on their gubernatorial primary and the U.S. Senate race, which is a must-win for both parties.

But Schmidt cautioned against reading too much into the disparity in turnout.

“Elections really come down to energy and to who shows up,” Schmidt said. “This suggests to me that Maine voters are already paying very close attention. And it suggests, at the very least, a lot of energy for Democratic voters, but I would guess a lot of energy across both parties.”

Primary ballots for each party were still being counted on Wednesday, so final voter turnout figures won’t be available for several days.

Still, Democrats touted the early returns.

“It’s a great sign of the momentum of the grassroots organizing that we’ve done here on the ground,” said Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic party.

The Maine Republican Party did not respond to questions about Republican voter turnout and what it may signal for the fall.

Gubernatorial primaries were the top draws for each party. But Democrats also had a high-profile U.S. Senate primary to entice unenrolled voters to choose their ballot.

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 208,000 ballots had been counted in the Democratic gubernatorial primary with about 93% of the expected votes tallied, The Associated Press estimated.

That’s about 68,000 more ballots than were cast in the 2018 gubernatorial primary and about 39,000 more than the 2020 Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Meanwhile, about 110,000 ballots had been counted in the Republican gubernatorial primary with 89% of the vote tallied. That’s about 5,000 more votes than in the 2018 primary.

Unenrolled voters are factoring into the party primaries in ways never before seen — and those voters chose Democratic ballots by a 3-to-1 margin.

Voters not registered to any political party were first allowed to vote in primaries in 2024, but turnout was low because there was no competition in either presidential race. This is the first time both parties had competitive statewide primaries that welcomed the unenrolled.

As of 5 p.m. on Tuesday, 16,161 absentee ballots from unenrolled voters had been accepted by elections officials, according to data from the Maine Department of the Secretary of State. About 12,140 of those ballots were for Democrats, while a little more than 4,000 were for Republicans.

Unenrolled voters make up about 32% of the state’s electorate.

Schmidt said that about a third of the state’s unenrolled voters routinely align with Democrats, while another third routinely align with Republicans. He said the national attention on the Democratic primaries may have caused independents to pick up Democratic ballots.

The U.S. Senate race dominated national headlines in the week leading up to the primaries, mostly because of scandalous national stories about Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee who is trying to unseat five-term Republican Susan Collins.

But as of Wednesday afternoon, about 2,000 fewer votes had been cast in that race than the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Although the turnout suggests Mainers are engaged, Schmidt said that constant campaigning and political ads could lead to voter fatigue and cause some people to tune out.

“But if things stay where they are now, I think we’re going to see another example of Maine kind of leading the nation in terms of voter turnout in November,” he said.