Maine’s Second Congressional District race between incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Republican State Rep. Austin Theriault is headed into uncertain territory after the final results from the Secretary of State’s office found neither candidate won more than 50 percent of the votes.
Under Maine’s recently adopted ranked-choice voting system, congressional candidates must win more than 50 percent of the total vote in order to win the election in the first round.
In the late stages of the counting, with more than 95 percent of precincts reporting, Golden had maintained a lead of more than 2,400 votes — less than one percentage point above the 50 percent threshold.
The results were so close that Theriault had already demanded a recount. Just hours later, word began to spread to campaign operatives that the final total count would put Golden under 50 percent, thereby forcing Ranked Choice Voting to take effect.
The only other candidate in the race was a minor write-in candidate from Surry named Diana D. Merenda.
Multiple sources have confirmed to the Maine Wire that both major campaigns and the Secretary of State’s office are trying to figure out what the legal and practical steps forward are now.
However, all ballots in Maine’s CD-2 will be quickly transported to a secure location by the Maine State Police for later counting.
Under the usual RCV rules, all of the ballots in which Merenda — or any other write-in candidate — was selected as the first choice will now have their second choices added to either Golden or Theriault. Although Merenda was a self-described write-in candidate, her name did not appear on the ballot.
Any votes that only ranked a write-in candidate would be discarded. After that point, the totals would be recalculated, effectively changing the denominator in the equation to get one candidate over 50 percent.
One source said that the Secretary of State’s office initially wanted to avoid disclosing the information to the public or media until next week in order to avoid any suggestions of irregularities with the election.
UPDATE: Following the Maine Wire’s reporting on the initiation of the RCV process, the Secretary of State disclosed in a press release that Maine’s CD2 was, in fact, headed to RCV. Hours later, the Golden campaign issued a statement denying the need for an RCV tabulation and insisting that the process instead move directly to the recount requested by Theriault’s campaign.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="32353 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=32353">33 Comments
It’s an election overseen by Bellows. Of course we expect that there were/are irregularities.
Wouldn’t it be rich if Golden somehow got knocked off
by the abomination of “ranked choice voting” that was designed to keep liberals in power for all eternity?
Bellows has to go.
They withheld it to avoid any suggestion of irregularities with the election?
Who do these people think they are? Intentionally withholding results IS an irregularity of ANY election.
Hopefully, the abomination known as RCV will bite the Dems in the a$$ this time around.
“ You can’t handle the truth!”
-Shenna Bellows
They installed him by RCV. It would be fitting if he lost by it too!
Bellows hiding the results is unconscionable!
How much longer is Maine going to suffer her incompetence!
Democrats win the seat . That is the reason Democrat Bellows is the Secretary of State. Theriault is 100% to have a recount first..
You Go, Austin,……
Illegal voting in Maine will put Golden back in Washington.
They will keep counting votes until the democrat wins.
Bruce Poloquin ‘s sweet revenge]. Bruce for Governor!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember when all those poor people in Lewiston where murdered and the first thing Jarod did was walk to that mic and preach gun laws. He’s a sick, sick man.
“Secretary of State’s office are trying to figure out what the legal and practical steps forward are now” Well there you go the SofS admitting that RCV is even to complicated for them to understand.
Get rid of RCV
Is Opera Is not voting. Too Bad.
Ranked Choice Voting
The democrat’s socialist scheme where “ the losers “ get to pick “ the winners “
Another corrupt Bellows plan ..
Maine voters got suckered into voting for this .
”They” made it sound so good , so fair .
Ranked choice voting is bullshit .
it needs to change !
If it’s so confusing that the people in charge barely understand it it’s not a good system. Get rid of it, idiots.
In our town write in candidates must be registered to have any votes counted. We had one candidate that filed to late to make the ballot but was allowed as a write in. Are the rules the same for the state elections for Federal candidates? If the write in candidate was allowed what are the rules for how precise the name match must be? This may affect how many of the other votes are allowed.
Dudes. With RCV, the candidate with the most support wins. This election is the perfect example. There were enough ballots cast for write-in (in addition, ballots blank at Rank 1 will be counted during an RCV tabulation, if the voter ranked a candidate in the second column) that we don’t yet know which of the major candidates has the most support. An RCV count will answer that question. Most folks didn’t think about the ballots cast for a write-in or the ones that are blank in the first column. They called the race for Golden. But Sec. Bellows didn’t — even when the apparent winner is a member of her own party. She’s making sure that ALL of the votes are counted. And then the candidate who appears to have lost can request a recount. This is a close, close race. Exactly the situation in which RCV and recounts help us understand which candidate has the most support. And exactly the situation in which the precise details of the law can affect the outcome. It’s not RCV that’s confusing. It’s incredibly close races that get confusing.
According to Wikipedia Maine and Alaska are the only two states that allow RCV on statewide ballots. Alaska’s ballot measure 2 repeals RCV and although the final outcome hasn’t yet been announced it looks like Alaska will reject RCV – leaving Maine as the only state to allow it on statewide ballots. Even crazy California and its crazier sister to the east New York is sane enough not to allow RCV to the extent that Maine does.
Dear RCV Works ,
it only works when the democrats can clandestinely fund the campaigns of a bunch of losers who have NO CHANCE of winning anything . Put on the ballot a long list of people who nobody has heard of . The ONLY people who vote for them will be the real loonies . We can expect a future of multiple losers showing up on ALL our future ballots . The more there are , the more the chances are , that either of the two REAL candidates won’t get more than the 50% “ Magic “ number . Then the socialist democrats can play this ridiculous voting game . But YOU already know this don’t you !
One person, one vote. If you vote for a dog live with it.
I’ll never forget his words during the first press briefing after the Lewiston Shooting.
“My name is Congressman Jared Golden from the town of Lewiston representing in second congressional district. Some of you might not recognize me because Congress has been so crazy lately I haven’t gotten a haircut in months.”
So l’m told that there are only 5 write in ballots in question and if that is all there is, the math does not work with the percentages that are reported to be the difference…
So what if the hand count is different than the machine count? And the hand count shows a 100% total recorded ballot count when all the candidates votes are added together….
Why is this not the case with the machine count now? 5 more ballots isn’t enough…..
Hammer and Scorecard is in play with the machines.
Trust me! …says the outed Communist Bellows! I saw a graph/ Survey online a while back. Each state was designated one thing that was solely theirs and Maine!?
Well we were voted the DUMBEST STATE!!
After the last couple election cycles coupled with the oh so wonderful Ranked Choice Scam I’m gonna have to agree! The super educated & tolerant Libtards did this to us. Everything they touch turns to S#@!
Does anyone remember the convoluted language used on the ballots when we were voting for RCV… Yes meant no, and no meant yes… not everyone is stupid, but they certainly did confuse alot of the people who always vote and that is the elderly patriots, WW2 , Korea etc…. it is one of the Maine Democrats favorite trickery.
F rcv. Lib/dim dogsqueeze. F’n fools.
What would we need to do to get RCV repealed ?
Who can do it ?
How ?
For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to clean and fix a Koma 400 day clock. And it is better but overall it has been a failure. I am NOT blaming the cleaners, but the 70 or so years of no care. Elections are the same. I am not blaming the Election of the Great Orange WIndmachine on the lack of RCV or other voting method. No, it is not the method, in this case, it is the VOTERS. They made this choice, at least this time in an apparent majority, that we are all stuck with for luckily only four years unless he really does reverse the Constitution!
The suggestion that blank ballots were withheld deliberately is INNANE! In how many local races or questions have you seen reporting of blank ballots?? Did you think there are NONE? How about officials waited until they knew how many there were?? Oh, wait, that makes sense! However if they are truly blank and there has been a 3-4% rate of blank ballots in the few elections.
2014 Plurality 11,532 (3.9%)
2012 Plurality 14,900 (4.3%)
2010 Plurality 8,376 (3%)
So if those 12,600 ballots under discussion are truly blank, they won’t your race driver a bit. You COULD hope for ALL of second rankings on the write in candidate but those 420 votes (for those with low math skills) will not add enough to make up the 2159 vote lead Golden has.
Can someone please explain what constitutes a spoiled ballot? I’ve been trying to find it on Maine.gov’s site.