Early voting sees strong turnout in 2026 midterm elections

And the question is, who is going to be running this country, not just the region? Kayleigh Schuyler is in Maine, where there's a big race. Republican Senator Susan Collins up against the Democrat Troy Jackson. Good afternoon to you. Yeah. Hi there, Jen and Jason. I'm here outside of a polling location and the polls opened here at 7 a.m. There was a pretty long line out the door for most of the morning, but things have slowed down a bit here within the last two hours. But I'm sure we're going to be getting the lunch rush anytime soon. So Jackson is trying to defeat Collins, who has held the seat for three decades. And some voters say it's time for her to go, while others say they want her for a sixth term. She is one of the few Republicans who's middle of the road, can see both sides of the issues. People are starting to get tired of her and they don't like her connection to other parts of our administration. There was record turnout for early voting. More than 300,000 Mainers casting ballots before Election Day. I've been in the state for the better part of the last month talking to voters, and some say they're concerned about the integrity of the election process. So I asked Maine Secretary of State Jenna Bellows how voters can be confident election officials are handling their ballots properly. There were two separate incidents last year where election materials ended up where they weren't supposed to be. How can voters feel confident tonight that their ballots are going to end up where they should? We fired them. If you're not getting the job done, you know, we were able to find the problem, rectify the error, make sure that it had no impact on the election. Five-term Republican Susan Collins is fighting to hold on to her seat. She's been campaigning as an independent thinker who fights for Maine. She says her seniority in the Senate gives her an advantage. While Troy Jackson says it's time to shake things up, he's been tying Collins to President Trump and campaigning with progressives like AOC and Bernie Sanders. Be effective in Washington. You have to have experience. You have to have knowledge. You have to have relationships and seniority. And I have all four of those. This race is about getting our government back and then pushing it forward in a way that I don't think any of us has ever seen it. The polls close at 8 o'clock tonight and Maine uses a ranked choice voting system. So if neither candidate wins 50% of the votes in this first round, it'll go into a runoff and that could take several days. Jen and Jason. Okay. Does that mean you have to stay up there for several days? You guys, TBD, we probably. Yeah, be watching that one. We will be talking again soon, most likely. Well, imagine if it all comes down to that to determine the balance of power and now we're all watching Maine. And yeah, that could be big. Thank you. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out, because thank you. It's hard with the delay.