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AUGUSTA — State officials are nearing the end of a dayslong ranked-choice runoff process to determine the final outcomes in key Maine primary races, including both gubernatorial primaries.

“I’m very optimistic,” Chief Deputy Secretary of State Kate McBrien told reporters on Wednesday around 3 p.m. “I’d like to think (we’ll get results) late tonight. If we run into any issues that take longer to resolve, though, it could go into tomorrow.”

Officials revised their timeline later, saying results would come on Thursday after announcing staff needed to retrieve paper ballots from South Berwick to back up their work.

The Department of the Secretary of State has said it will give a two-hour warning ahead of releasing final results in order to give candidates and the media time to get to Augusta, where the runoffs are being conducted at the Maine Department of Public Safety headquarters.

Three key Maine primary races are being determined via ranked-choice runoffs — both gubernatorial primaries and the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District.

In the Republican primary for governor, attorney and former federal government official Bobby Charles was the leader after the first round of voting on election night, with 37.9% support in the eight-way race, according to unofficial results from The Associated Press.

He was followed by former fitness franchise executive Ben Midgley (20.1%) and healthcare CEO Jonathan Bush (19.8%).

In the Democratic primary for governor, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah led in first-choice votes on election night, with 26.8% support, according to unofficial results. He was followed by Hannah Pingree (23.3%), Troy Jackson (21.1%), Shenna Bellows (20.6%) and Angus King III (8.3%).

And in the 2nd District, state Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, led after the first round with 31.6% support, followed by Matt Dunlap (29.3%), Jordan Wood (28.8%) and Paige Loud (10.3%).

In a ranked-choice system, voters rank candidates in races with three or more contenders in order of preference. If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote in the first round, the race proceeds to a runoff where the last-place candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed based on their supporters’ backup choices. The process repeats until one candidate crosses the 50% threshold.

The system requires election materials to be brought to a central location for state officials to retabulate the results and apply the ranked-choice methodology. State officials started the process of compiling election results on Friday and originally said they expected results before the Juneteenth holiday on Friday.

In addition to the gubernatorial and 2nd District races, the state is also conducting runoffs in legislative races for House District 58, in the Belgrade area, and Senate District 4, in the Dexter area.

While the department originally said it would work within business hours on the ranked-choice runoffs, McBrien said Wednesday that “if we’ve got a good groove” and there are only a few hours of work left, staff would push through to finish the process Wednesday night.

“If they can finish tonight, and not have to do this tomorrow, that sounds great for all of us,” McBrien said. “I know everyone is also really anxious for results, so we’d love to be able to provide that.”

Later, she said the South Berwick issue was one reason the process was pushed into Thursday.

“It’s really about doing a thorough checking process and making sure we have all the accurate info,” she said.