In a critical congressional contest in Maine, the state’s ranked choice voting method will be utilized this week to pick the winner, but that won’t be the last of it. The currently trailing contender has asked for a full recount, which will not commence until more than 12,000 votes have been reallocated to determine a majority.
Election officials will aim to complete both processes swiftly enough to guarantee that the results are certified and forwarded to the governor by Maine’s Nov. 25 deadline, while state law allows for recounts.
Why is there so much attention focused on this race?
The battle between Democratic Rep. Jared Golden and Republican challenger Austin Theriault in Maine’s second congressional district is one of a small handful of uncalled races that will determine which party controls the United States House.
The campaign is between a Marine Corps veteran incumbent who occasionally defies his fellow Democrats and a stock car racer who embraces conservative ideals but has positioned himself as a potential unifier in Congress.
The contest received a lot of interest and money, possibly up to $30 million, a big number for a rural congressional district.
On Monday, fewer than 20 contests remained to be called to determine House control, after Democrat April McClain Delaney narrowly won a Maryland district and Republican David Schweikert was reelected in Arizona on Sunday.
What is ranked-choice voting?
Maine voters implemented ranked choice voting in 2016, which allows each voter to rank their worse options.
If no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, additional rounds of tabulations commence, reallocating the less preferred choices of the last-place finisher’s supporters until one candidate obtains a majority.
Golden is familiar with the process. When he defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in 2018, he required an extra round to be declared the winner, and he will need one again in 2022. Poliquin received the most first-place votes the first time around, but Golden won the majority after second choices were included. Golden received the most first-place votes in their rematch and again won.
What’s the next step?
Golden claimed he won the vote outright after some media outlets named him the winner, but the secretary of state’s office later acknowledged that the ranked-choice process was required because neither candidate had received more than 50% of the vote in the first round.
All votes were then moved from various locations throughout the 2nd Congressional District to a building in Augusta that houses the Maine Emergency Management Agency and the Maine Department of Safety.
Beginning Tuesday, election officials will start scanning thousands of individual ballots into a computer. Once that is done, the ranked tabulation takes only a few seconds with a computer keyboard. Officials plan to complete it before the end of the week.
The complete proceedings are open to the public. The broadcast will be available on the Secretary of State’s YouTube channel.
But the process does not stop there. Before the ranked choice procedure was announced, Theriault sought a recount, which will most likely take longer than a week to complete.
How close is this race?
The Associated Press has not announced a winner. According to data given by the secretary of state, both candidates received slightly less than 49% of first-choice votes, with Golden leading by roughly 2,000 votes.
It’s so close that it could come down to voters’ second choices for the one announced write-in candidate, retiree Diana Merenda, who received 400 votes and more than 12,000 blank ballots. The ranked choice tabulation will take into account if any of those blanks had a second or third preference despite the lack of a first-place option.
Any ballots that are actually blank (with no candidates selected) will not be counted. Ballots with undeclared write-in candidates will also be invalid.
