Election officers work behind Secretary of State Shenna Bellows as she talks to reporters Wednesday on the Maine Congressional District 2 ranked-choice voting tabulation in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
After three days of counting ballots from a number of hundred Maine municipalities, state elections officers decided Wednesday that U.S. Rep. Jared Golden gained reelection throughout final week’s ranked-choice voting.
Among the many 321,644 votes within the race, the two-term Lewiston Democrat acquired 53% of the full, whereas Republican challenger Bruce Poliquin received 47%, in line with Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Lewiston speaks final week at Democratic headquarters in Lewiston. Daryn Slover/Solar Journal file
Golden, who had already claimed victory final week based mostly on preliminary figures, issued an announcement after the rely by which he thanked Bellow’s workplace and the Maine State Police for doing their obligation “with professionalism and integrity.”
“I’m deeply honored that the individuals of Maine’s Second District have chosen me to characterize them in Washington for one more two-year time period,” Golden mentioned. “I’m already again to work at my workplace in Congress, persevering with to assist ship for my constituents and supply considerate, unbiased management for the individuals of our state.”
Poliquin, who vowed to abide by the outcomes, couldn’t be reached.
The ultimate tally Wednesday night included the second decisions of voters who initially picked unbiased Tiffany Bond or wrote in someone after which opted to decide on an alternate choose for the subsequent spherical of counting.
Golden wound up with 165,136 votes and Poliquin 146,142 votes within the remaining spherical, after the 21,655 votes for Bond have been divvied up among the many second decisions of her voters.
It isn’t the primary time Golden has gained a ranked-choice race in Maine, however final time round, it was not as clear who would wind up on high.
In 2018, within the first federal ranked-choice election, Golden trailed after the primary spherical, however got here out the winner to unseat Poliquin after the votes of the 2 independents within the contest have been reallocated within the second spherical.
On this 12 months’s first spherical of voting, Golden collected 153,074 votes, or 48%, to Poliquin’s 141,260 votes, or 45%, and Bond’s 21,655 votes, or 7%.
Since not one of the three garnered a majority, the candidate with the least votes, Bond, was dropped from rivalry and her ballots have been reallocated to whichever various voters had chosen as their quantity two choose. The ballots the place someone wrote in a reputation within the first spherical have been additionally reallocated.
To determine all of it out, elections officers in Augusta rounded up all of the paper ballots from the numerous small communities that didn’t possess an digital tabulator, a machine that counts ballots, in addition to the reminiscence sticks from cities that used tabulators.
Since not one of the machines is related to the web, all the required ballots and reminiscence sticks needed to be dropped at Augusta, the place they’ve been beneath guard.
Assistant Director of Elections Heidi Peckham, left, runs the tabulation as Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, background, reads outcomes to viewers of a Fb livestream after the Maine 2nd Congressional District ranked-choice voting outcomes have been posted Wednesday in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
The counting went typically easily, though ballots needed to be retrieved from a number of municipalities, together with Bangor, to determine discrepancies or cope with damaged reminiscence sticks.
“Generally, know-how fails,” Bellows mentioned.
Bellows in contrast counting and verifying every poll to “an accounting or an auditing course of.”
“It’s not glamorous,” she mentioned, however it’s essential to the democratic course of.
At each step, representatives of the Golden and Poliquin campaigns examined particulars and agreed on what the election overseers have been doing.
Bellows mentioned the marketing campaign officers “actually modeled” what she referred to as “the civility and respect” that Maine seeks in its elections.
The 2nd Congressional District, some of the rural within the nation and the biggest east of the Mississippi River, leans Republican.
Final week, its voters favored GOP gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage, and two years in the past, they backed the reelection bid of Donald Trump, the Republican president who this week introduced his intention to hunt the presidency as soon as once more.
Golden, although, gained the district by greater margins than LePage or Trump.
Golden in 2018 trailed Poliquin by 2,071 votes on the finish of the primary spherical. In the long run, he gained by greater than 3,500 votes as a result of so many independents picked him over Poliquin within the second spherical.
This 12 months, there have been 6,978 ballots within the 2nd District the place voters didn’t make any alternative for a congressional candidate or messed it up by some means, officers mentioned. Add these in and 321,644 ballots solid total.
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