Maine's 2nd Congressional District race will go to ranked choice voting tabulation, officials say
Secretary of State's Office says neither Jared Golden nor Austin Theriault received more than half the vote
Secretary of State's Office says neither Jared Golden nor Austin Theriault received more than half the vote
Secretary of State's Office says neither Jared Golden nor Austin Theriault received more than half the vote
Maine's closely-watched 2nd Congressional District race is now set for a ranked choice voting tabulation in Augusta, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Thursday night.
According to Maine election officials, initial results from Tuesday's general election indicate neither incumbent Congressman Jared Golden, a Democrat, nor his Republican challenger, State Rep. Austin Theriault, achieved a majority of first-choice votes. This means the ranked-choice process is necessary to determine a winner.
Maine uses ranked choice voting in races for federal offices, which includes the U.S. House. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated. Voters who chose the eliminated candidate as their top pick have their votes redistributed to their next choice, and the process is repeated until one candidate has a majority of votes.
The Secretary of State's Office said Golden received 48.65% of the vote while Theriault received 48.11% of the vote. While Golden and Theriault were the only two candidates who appeared on the ballot, write-in candidate Diana Merenda — whose write-in candidacy was recognized by the state before the election — received 0.1% of the vote in the general election.
Election officials also said 3.13% of the ballots they received had a first choice left blank. The second choices of any voters who left their first choice blank will be counted in the ranked choice tabulation.
"The big surprise was the number of blank ballots, 12,635," Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said. "If Diana Merenda hadn't been in the race, those blanks wouldn't have mattered. But because she was a declared write in candidate, she is a third candidate, and that does trigger the ranked choice voting tabulation, because none of the candidates received 50% plus one of the final votes cast."
The announcement from Bellows came two days after Golden declared victory in the U.S. House race, despite the fact The Associated Press had yet to call the race. Golden said his campaign's decision to declare victory was made based upon projections that showed "any viable path to a win" from Theriault had closed.
The Golden campaign responded to Bellows' announcement late Thursday night.
"The rules are clear: A ranked-choice run-off is required only if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes. When the clerks reported returns on Tuesday, Congressman Golden was the candidate who received more than 50 percent of first-choice votes," Golden's campaign said in a statement in response to Bellows' announcement. "Voters have a right to see elections decided both accurately and expediently. State Rep. Theriault has asserted his right to a recount by hand and Congressman Golden agrees to it. So let's just do it, rather than incur the delays and expenses of a ranked-choice run-off."
Earlier on Thursday, Theriault and his campaign formally requested a recount as he was trailing in the initial results. Maine has no mandatory recounts, even in close elections. But the state does allow candidates to request a recount. The state does not require a deposit for a recount if the margin of victory is 1% or less in congressional races.
"Given that this is the closest race in modern Maine history, we must ensure a full, accurate count," Theriault campaign manager Shawn Roderick said in a statement shared with Maine's Total Coverage.
The Secretary of State's Office said any recount would follow the ranked choice tabulation, which is scheduled to begin next week in Augusta. Ballots from all of the 2nd District's cities and towns will be transported to the state capital and re-scanned into a computer in a centralized location. The tabulation is a public proceeding and will be livestreamed on YouTube.
“There is a process in place and we look forward to the process unfolding according to the law,” Theriault's campaign manager said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Maine's 2nd Congressional District is made up of all municipalities and unorganized territories in Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo and Washington Counties, as well as the municipalities of Augusta, Belgrade, Chelsea, Farmingdale, Fayette, Gardiner, Hallowell, Manchester, Monmouth, Mount Vernon, Oakland, Randolph, Readfield, Rome, Sidney, Vienna, Wayne and Winthrop in Kennebec County. At more than 27,000 square miles, it is the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi River.
This is the third time Golden's race for the second congressional district will go to ranked choice voting, after he defeated Republican Bruce Poliquin in 2018 and again in 2022.
Explaining the differences in election data
Maine's Total Coverage uses vote counts from The Associated Press when reporting results in statewide races and races for federal office.
The AP has yet to declare a winner in the 2nd Congressional District race. As of noon Friday, Maine's Total Coverage had Golden with 50.02% of the vote and Theriault with 49.66% of the vote with 97% reporting.
AP vote count reporters collect election results at a local level, gathering data at precinct locations and county election offices as soon as polls close. The reporters work with local election officials to collect results directly from counties or precincts where they are first counted and collected and submit them, by phone or electronically, as soon as they’re available. The results are transmitted to the AP’s vote entry center, which employs an additional 800 to 900 people.
Because many states and counties display election results on websites, the AP monitors those sites and enters the results into the same system. The vote entry center also takes in feeds of results directly from election officials where they are provided, and uses automated tools to collect results from official government websites.
In many cases, counties will report more votes as they count ballots throughout Election Night. The AP is continuously updating its count as these results are released. In a general election, the AP will make as many as 21,000 race updates per hour.
On general election nights, the AP can have up to five or six potential sources of election results in each county and can choose between them depending on which is most up-to-date and accurate. Those multiple sources don’t just serve as a backup to each other; they also provide a check to help ensure the vote totals reported are correct.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
