The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is narrowing in Maine with the likelihood increasing that Trump could walk away with at least one of the state’s electoral votes in November, according to a new poll by the Boston Globe and Colby College.
Clinton continues to lead Trump in Maine, but the gap between the two is narrowing compared to earlier polls, including one conducted by the Maine Sunday Telegram and University of New Hampshire, the Globe reported Tuesday night.
The new Boston Globe — Colby College poll, conducted last week by SurveyUSA, shows Clinton leading Trump 42 percent to 39 percent in Maine with just 5 percent of voters undecided with less than eight weeks before Election Day.
The Sunday Telegram poll, conducted in mid-June, showed Clinton leading Trump 42 percent to 35 percent with 19 percent supporting another candidate and 4 percent undecided.
“Mainers for the first time in a while have to pay attention to the statewide race for president,” Dan Shea, a political science professor and director of the Goldfarb Center at Colby College, told the Globe. “The Clinton campaign can no longer take this state for granted.”
Maine is one of just two states, along with Nebraska, where the winner of the general election does not automatically take all of the electoral votes. Instead, two of the state’s four votes go to the statewide winner and one additional vote goes to the winner of each congressional district.
Historically, all of Maine’s electoral votes have always gone to one candidate, but the new poll shows Trump leading Clinton by 10 points in the 2nd District — someplace where he could conceivably win one electoral vote, according to the Globe. In contrast, Clinton has an 18-point lead in Maine’s 1st District.
“Trump’s ascendancy in Maine is largely due to his dominance in the vast northern sector of the state — but analysts say it’s also a reflection of how Maine, like many parts of the country, has become geographically more polarized,” the Globe reported.
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