On this day in 1820, Maine entered the Union as the 23rd state in accord with the Missouri Compromise, having been carved out of Massachusetts. France and Britain had disputed ownership until 1763, when the region was ceded to the British as part of the deal that ended the French and Indian War.
Aside from the original 13 Colonies, no state started out with more electoral votes: It had nine in the 1820 election. By the mid-19th century, however, as the nation extended westward, Maine began losing electoral votes. Since the 1964 election, it has had four.
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The need for an earlier harvest prompted Maine to hold its congressional and gubernatorial elections in September rather than in November. Its gubernatorial results accurately predicted the outcome of the November presidential election from 1832 through 1844, in 1852, from 1860 through 1876, in 1888, from 1896 through 1908 and from 1920 through 1932. This pattern gave rise to the phrase, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”
Maine and Nebraska remain the sole states that do not adhere to an all-or-nothing formula in awarding their electoral votes. In Maine, the winner of the popular vote gets two electoral votes, while one is assigned to the winner of each of the state’s congressional districts. This approach, adopted with the 1972 presidential election, has yet to result in a split electoral vote.
As much of New England, Maine remained a Republican bastion after the Civil War. In presidential contests, the Democratic exceptions to this pattern were Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, who both won, and Hubert Humphrey in 1968, who lost. From 1980 through 1996, Maine voters consistently supported the winning presidential candidate. Maine has voted for Democrats in the past five presidential elections, with Barack Obama winning by 18 percent over John McCain in 2008.
SOURCE: U.S. Library of Congress