AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine’s top election official is laying out the timetable for results from the first ranked-choice voting in the state.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap says that if there’s no majority winner in Tuesday’s primary elections, then the results of additional rounds of ranked-choice tabulations won’t be known until sometime in the following week after the election.

The ranked-choice voting system is sometimes referred to as an instant runoff election. But there’s nothing instant about the process in Maine.

Dunlap said General Courier has been contracted to begin retrieving the results from town clerks two days after the election, next Thursday.

The office isn’t committing to a day in which the unofficial voting outcome will be announced, but said it will be in the week after the election.

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