Maine’s Second Congressional District is headed for a recount that could last weeks after incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden emerged as the winner following a controversial Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) tabulation.
After Election Day, Golden held a slim lead over Republican challenger State Rep. Austin Theriault of roughly 2,000 votes.
However, under Maine’s RCV rules, candidates for certain offices are required to receive more than 50 percent of the “first choices” in the ranked ballot system.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) determined that, due to a large number of “blank” first-choice selections and the presence of a declared write-in candidate, Maine’s RCV process would have to be triggered, as Golden had technically received less than 50 percent of the vote.
Over the past two weeks, Mainers have waited as Bellows live-streamed the RCV tabulation, which reached a predictable conclusion: Golden was still the winner.
After the blank first-choice votes were run through the RCV process, which would either convert their second choices into first choices or discard the vote altogether if no choice had been made at all, Golden’s lead crept above the 50 percent threshold.
“[T]onight’s result reaffirms what we have known for more than a week: The people have chosen me to continue as their representative for another term in Congress,” Golden said in a statement posted to X.
“State Rep. Austin Theriault is within his rights to force a third accounting of ballots with a taxpayer-funded recount, but the votes have been counted twice now and my lead has been in the thousands of votes both times,” said Golden.
Theriault’s spokesperson confirmed in a statement to the media that the Republican would continue to press for a recount given the close margin in the race.
“With the race for Maine’s Second Congressional District remaining the closest federal race in modern Maine history following the allocation of ranked choice votes, we are renewing our call for a state-funded automatic recount of the results,” Theriault campaign manager Shawn Roderick said.
Sources close to the campaign indicate that the recount could take more than three weeks to complete.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="32540 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=32540">18 Comments
We need to get rid of ranked choice voting .
We need to get rid of Bellows.
How the voters of Maine got suckered into this RCV Scam is beyond me .
The wording on the referendum ballot must have been so confusing the voters were too ashamed to admit they didn’t understand . Its pure BS .
It needs to be repealed .
Even without RCV Golden wins.
Ranked choice voting is doing exactly what its inventors wanted, confuse the voters.
We need to go back to one vote per person, and hand counting ballots.
So let’s see if I got this right, first bellows tries to remove trump from the ballot showing where her allegiance lie, then she can’t declare a winner for 2nd D for 2 weeks after the vote? She’s either corrupt, which I suspect or incompetent. I hope there’s a full federal investigation of both of these insurrections. It’s the only way to assure the voters that the system is on the level.
Fuck what Golden says!
Half of D2 sees him as the weasel sellout Biden rumpswab he is!
The other half of D2 ,those who voted for Golden, hate Maine and Maine values as much as Golden does!
People are looking to repeal RCV. Go to removeRCV.com and see what you can do to help get it on the ballot and let the people vote to get rid of it!
If states can change the voting process from one vote per citizen to RCV then I propose a new ballot initiative to change voting in Maine. All Maine citizens get one vote plus one vote for each $1000 in Maine Income tax a citizen pays each year. The more you pay the more say you have in electing lawmakers who write the tax code.
Bellows accpted national popular vote. Is she gong to award all of ME’s delegates to Trump? I doubt it.
We need to save money.
F*ck Rank CHOICE VOTING. Brought to you by the dupes who thought the child porn democrat Eliot Cutler should have won over Paul LePage.
Ayuh,….. One Citizen, one vote, is the way life should be,…..
Abolish ranked vote cheating, ‘n the interstate popular vote compact, the democrat’s end-run around the US Constitution,…..
In RCV : what happens to the votes an eliminated candidate had?
Does that % get redistributed or added back somehow?
RCV should be rejected/revoted on by the people not the politicians.
Let’s make it a unlawful to lie or create a false narrative against an opponent.
Lets keep the media out of politics. If they *air it* for the ad money they should be resposible for its content – no more false advertising. Thank God for the Mute button on the remote.
Twisted ballot writing needs new authors. Does a yes mean a yes?
How does RCV handle write-in candidates on the ballot? Do they count these votes as the “voters with the fewest votes” first to move up their ballots? If so, we need to see the list of all vote counts including write-ins since they were most likely the fewest votes first moved up in the counting process. If they don’t count them, then what happens if a write-in gets more votes than a candidate printed on the ballot?
Ranked Choice Voting means flood the ballot with as many people as you can find in order to dilute the vote with as many “ also rans “ as possible .
These people HAVE NO CHANCE of winning , they are just clutter to the real contest , which is always between the Democrat and the Republican .
Then it means count the votes ( play with the numbers ) as many times as it takes for the democrat candidate to win .
How we got here is just plain insanity brought to us by the devious left.
Im betting 75% of Mainers have NO IDEA how it works and didn’t when they voted for it in the first place .
It needs to come up for a vote again !
It is obvious that the Democratic party does not respect the vote of the majority of voters in their attempt to obstruct and slow the Trump group. The Democrat’s have not respect for us for the majority.
ranked choice is a scam.