Will ranked choice voting affect timing of Maine and Alaska's Senate race results? Here's what we know

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Most U.S. voters who are deciding Senate races Tuesday will pick one candidate. For voters in Alaska and Maine, their ballots instead will offer the chance to rank candidates in what is known as ranked choice voting.

Maine and Alaska are the only two states using the voting method to select a U.S. senator this election. Those competitive races, ranked as "toss ups" by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, are seen as key to which party controls Congress.

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"Ranked choice voting has a few different goals," said Derek Tisler, elections expert for the Brennan Center for Justice. "One is to ensure that the ultimate winner reflects majority support, and two is to allow voters to support more candidates without worrying that their vote is going to be wasted."

WATCH: How open primaries and ranked choice voting can help break partisan gridlock

Ranked choice voting itself doesn't lead to later election results, experts told PBS News, but it can be a factor. When polls close Tuesday in Alaska and Maine, it may take some time for news outlets to report a winner. For these two close Senate races, newsrooms that make projections may need more of the official results than they do for other contests before they can confidently predict the winner.

PBS News relies on race calls from The Associated Press to report the winners before election officials certify the results. Official election results take weeks as every vote is counted and certified.

WATCH: Inside the AP's process for calling election races

Here's what to know about ranked choice voting, how it works in Maine and Alaska, as well as what it means for when we'll know the results.

What is ranked choice voting?

Under ranked choice voting, voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference for whom they most want to win.

If one candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice votes, that candidate wins. If no candidate meets the threshold, there's an instant runoff.

In the next round, the candidate with the fewest number of first-choice votes is eliminated. People who ranked the now-eliminated candidate first have their votes reallocated to their second-choice candidate.

The redistribution keeps happening until one candidate has more than 50% of the votes.

READ MORE: 3 things to watch on election night (and beyond)

"It's a way to make sure that candidates have support from the majority of voters," said Wren Orey, managing director of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Elections Project.

This voting method mitigates the risk that the candidate who wins "received a higher share of votes than any other candidate, but isn't actually preferred by the majority of voters," Orey said.

The District of Columbia as well as more than a dozen other cities and counties across the country will ask voters to rank candidates for their races.

How does ranked choice voting work in Alaska?

In Alaska's case, there will be four candidates for voters to rank:

• Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican and the incumbent
• Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola
• Gerald Heikes, a Republican
• Dan J. Sullivan, who is running without a party affiliation

The four candidates who advanced to the general election are those who received the most votes during the primary. Heikes was added to the ballot after Democrat David Leslie, who ended up in fourth, withdrew from the race.

LIVE RESULTS: Alaska Senate midterm election

Alaska first implemented ranked choice voting in 2022 after voting to adopt the method in 2020. Voters agreed to keep the system via a 2024 ballot measure.

The inclusion of Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot is the subject of a federal criminal investigation after The New York Times reported that operatives connected to Peltola's campaign recruited the candidate to run against Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in an attempt to hinder the incumbent's chances of winning.

Peltola has denied any knowledge of the recruitment effort.

WATCH: Republicans seize on controversy in Alaska's closely watched Senate race

Watch the PBS News Hour segment in the player above.

Dan J. Sullivan is considered a spoiler candidate — a candidate who isn't expected to win but whose presence on the ballot affects who will. The tactic of stacking ballots with candidates who draw votes away from an opponent is known as "ballot stacking."

Ranked choice voting is designed in part to mitigate spoiler candidates, Tisler said.

When voting in regular elections, voters may be afraid to vote for a third-party candidate who they align more with, but whom they know is unlikely to win. They may feel they're wasting their vote or that they're taking a vote away from a candidate who isn't their first choice but that they would rather see win.

With ranked choice voting, that dilemma is mitigated, Tisler said.

"If you support a third-party candidate, no problem," he said. "You can rank them first, and you'll still get a say when it comes down to the candidates most likely to win by ranking one of those candidates second or third."

How does ranked choice voting work in Maine?

In Maine's Senate race, voters will be asked to rank between Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the incumbent, and Democrat Troy Jackson. Voters can also write-in one of six official write-in candidates.

WATCH: What Maine voters are saying about the Collins-Jackson Senate race

Watch the PBS News Hour segment in the player above.

Maine implemented ranked choice voting in 2018 after voters approved it in a 2016 ballot initiative.

LIVE RESULTS: Maine Senate midterm election

In both Maine or Alaska Senate elections, voters aren't required to give each candidate a rank. For example, in Maine's case, a voter can choose to vote only for Collins or Jackson as their first choice without marking the other candidate as a second choice.

When can we expect election results, and how does ranked choice voting affect the timeline?

Voters are often eager to find out who won the election as soon as polls close. But election experts told PBS News it's important to remember that election results take time, and the results voters see on election night aren't final or official, they're projected results.

WATCH: How does The Associated Press call 2026 midterm election winners? 4 things to know

At the AP, calls are made by a team of journalists once they determine there is no possible way trailing candidates can catch the leader.

Just how quickly those calls are made depend on how tight the race is and what information a state publishes.

"Longer waits for results are not a delay in the process. There's nothing wrong when that happens," Orey said. "It simply means that election officials are taking the time they need to make sure that all eligible votes are counted and counted accurately."

READ MORE: When will we know 2026 midterm election results? It may take some time, but that's normal

State specific rules also play a role.

The U.S. has a decentralized election system, meaning each state has its own method to certify election results, ensuring every ballot is counted.

Alaska, for example, accepts absentee ballots up to 15 days after the election since the state is so large and so many voters live in places reachable only by plane or boat. For a close race, as the Senate race is expected to be, it may take up to two weeks before the state has counted enough votes to confidently predict the winner.

Ranked choice voting can also play a role in timing.

Since Alaska has four candidates and Maine has two plus six write-ins, a candidate might not receive more than 50% of the vote in the first round.

"Unless a candidate gets a majority with first choices alone, we can't be confident in who the winner is going to be until the ranked choice voting tabulation happens," Tisler said.

In Maine's case, ranked choice voting tabulations must take place in Augusta, the state capital. It takes time to transport all the state's ballots and memory devices before the tabulation can begin.

"Those processes play out, and ultimately getting it right is worth the wait," Tisler said. "That's what the processes are designed to do."

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