Gorham voters cast 2,252 ballots in the March 5 primary to choose candidates for the November presidential election. Although this was a rank-choice election, President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump defeated their opponents by more than 51% of the vote in Gorham and in Maine making them the out-right winners of their primaries.

Nikki Haley received 35% of Gorham Republican votes and 27% of all Maine Republican votes, but withdrew after the election. The other Republicans on the ballot had withdrawn before the election, so their votes were not counted.

For the most part, the election that permitted voters to rank their choices for presidential nominees went smoothly. Many ranked more than one candidate, and some used the write-in option as their second choice: for example, writing-in Cease-fire or a candidate not on the ballot. None of the second-place choices were counted as a run-off was not necessary. In any event, only write-ins for declared candidates are ever counted.

This was the first Maine election where voters who were not registered for a party could choose to vote in either the Republican or Democrat primary. A few voters discovered when they went to the polls that they were registered in the No Labels Party when they believed they had just signed a petition, and therefore they could not vote in the primary. This illegal registration was the fault of the Party but could not be changed to enable these voters to cast ballots in this election. Only registered Republicans and Democrat or unenrolled voters could vote on March 5.

Some other voters believed they were registered in one party, when they were actually registered in another one. The Town Clerk was able to access their signed registration cards that showed they had registered for the party listed for them. They had to vote in their party of record for this election.

According to Laurie Nordfors, the town clerk, “Anyone who changed parties on March 5 will be able to vote in the June 11 primary. Whenever you change parties, you must stay for three months, but they will be within the time period to vote in June.”

Nordfors said, “some people who registered for a party years ago but have been voting for candidates in another party for years, think they are registered in that party.” Voters may vote for any candidate in a general election, but in a primary may only vote for a candidate in the party in which they are registered. “People who registered years ago might want to call the clerk’s office to see what party they are enrolled in now,” Nordfors advised,” so if they are not in the correct party, they can change before the deadline of May 27 to be able to vote in the June primary.”