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Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouelette

Many Mainers voted early or by absentee ballot, but that didn’t stop large numbers from heading to the polls Tuesday. Voters cast their votes at Scarborough High School.

Photo by Ben McCanna

A voter kneels to complete her ballot at Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland. A record number of voters voted ahead of Election Day, with about 500,000 – close to half the number of registered voters – sending in their ballots by mail or dropping them in collection boxes.

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouelette

Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap estimates that more than 75 percent of the voting-age population cast ballots in the 2020 general election, which is a record. Residents vote at the Westbrook Community Center on Tuesday.

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Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouelette

People wait to enter their ballots in a voting machine at Biddeford High School. There were lines to vote most of the day even though half of the city’s registered voters requested and returned absentee ballots before Election Day.

Photo by Ben McCanna

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, outside a polling location at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, predicted a voter participation record.

Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Scarborough High School on Election Day. Voting was peaceful throughout Maine, with no reports of voter intimidation or interference.

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Photo by Ben McCanna

A line exceeds the width of Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland on Election Day.

Photo by Ben McCanna

A voter prepares to return his ballots at Windham High School. By midday, the wait was short.

Photo by Gregory Rec

Paul Coughlin looks over his ballot as he enters a voting booth at Kennebunk Town Hall. There were 240 Kennebunk voters who registered on Election Day.

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Photo by Michele McDonald

Jade Thibodeau waits to vote in the South Portland’s Boys & Girls Club gym on Tuesday morning. With more space needed between voting stations because of the pandemic, there were fewer voting stations set up for the 2020 election. The line in the morning extended into the parking lot.

Photo by Michele McDonald

Sam Monahan registers at South Portland’s Boys & Girls Club Tuesday morning as voter deputy Ollie LaChapelle sanitizes her hands. LaChapelle has worked on Election Day for more than 25 years and said she loves registering people to vote.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

A poll worker walks over to sanitize a voting booth in Bangor after a voter leaves on Election Day.

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Photo by Derek Davis

Michael Burnham of Scarborough shows his support for President Trump across from Scarborough Town Hall on Tuesday evening.

Photo by Gregory Rec

Mary Lou Nedeau, election warden for the town of Kennebunk for 20 years, rolls up a ballot scanner printout after the polls closed. Kennebunk has 10,568 registered voters and the town received 8,347 ballots.

Photo by Gregory Rec

Clockwise from left, Leah Rachin, Rebecca Beers, Carrie Weeman and Terry Beers review auxiliary ballots after the polls closed in Kennebunk. Auxiliary ballots are those that were not marked clearly enough for the optical scanner to read them or ballots that were damaged.

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Photo by Gregory Rec

Kennebunk Town Clerk Merton Brown uses his cellphone flashlight to look over a tabulation printout from a scanning machine while verifying vote counts after voting finished on Tuesday.

Photo by Derek Davis

News teams set up at the election night headquarters for U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Sara Gideon at The Westin Portland Harborview hotel. Gideon, however, didn’t show up to make a statement Tuesday night.

Photo by Derek Davis

U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Sara Gideon concedes to Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins during a livestream speech at The Westin Portland Harborview on Wednesday.

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Photo by Brianna Soukup

Letters spelling out “Susan” sit inside at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor, where incumbent Sen. Susan Collins held a private party on election night.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Sen. Susan Collins greets supporters before heading back inside the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor on Tuesday night. She held a lead over Sara Gideon in early results, and went on to win the election.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Sen. Susan Collins waves at supporters as she comes onstage at an election night event outside the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor on Tuesday night. Collins told them it was still going to be a long night, but that she was encouraged by the results.

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Photo by Brianna Soukup

Supporters of Sen. Susan Collins file back into a private party inside the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor after showing their support for the senator in front of the television cameras on Tuesday night.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

Supporters cheer for Sen. Susan Collins as she speaks around midnight Tuesday at an election night event in Bangor. Collins said it was still going to be a long night, but that she was encouraged by the results.

Photo by Brianna Soukup

The temperature in Bangor around midnight Tuesday was in the low 20s as supporters of Sen. Susan Collins waited for results in Maine’s U.S. Senate race. Collins was declared the winner on Wednesday.

Derek grew up in New York, while spending part of his summers in Maine, where he developed an appreciation for its wild landscape and natural beauty. Moving from a metropolitan area to the wide-open spaces...

Brianna was born and raised in Nebraska and became interested in photography in elementary school when her art teacher gave her a camera to document their fifth grade class. After college she interned...

Gregory got his start in journalism delivering his hometown newspaper, the Norwich Bulletin, as a teenager, reading the front page articles on dark winter mornings as he passed under streetlights. Greg...

Shawn has been a staff photographer at the Portland Press Herald since 2002. He previously worked for the Journal Tribune in Biddeford from 1993 to 2002, and as an intern with the Miami Herald in 1992. During...

Ben McCanna has been a staff photographer and occasional writer at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram since 2015 and has been working for newspapers since 2010. Ben studied creative writing...