Democratic Rep. Jared Golden was declared the winner of Maine’s 2nd Congressional District race on Friday following a ranked-choice runoff for the hotly contested seat.
But the race isn’t over yet.
The campaign of Republican challenger Austin Theriault requested a hand recount Friday evening, meaning the official results likely won’t be known until mid-December.
Golden entered Friday’s runoff with a 2,159-vote lead over Republican Austin Theriault based on the initial count from the Nov. 5 election. His lead over Theriault expanded to 2,706 votes after the ranked-choice tabulation, which factored in the second-choice preferences of voters who either wrote another name on their ballots or left the first-choice oval blank.
In the final tabulation, Golden received 197,151 votes compared to 194,445 for Theriault. Three of Golden’s four victories have been decided by ranked-choice runoffs – a trend that illustrates why the swing-district seat consistently ranks as a top priority for both national parties.
“Last week, I congratulated my opponent for being a fierce challenger and for his serious, well-run campaign,” Golden said in a statement. “But today’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. I am grateful for their confidence.
“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,” Golden said.
Theriault campaign's staff and attorneys immediately huddled for several minutes in the hallway outside of the recount room and then returned with a letter formally requesting a recount.
"We look forward to this going to a recount. We saw a lot of anomalies," Shawn Roderick, Theriault's campaign manager, told reporters Friday night. "We are very proud of the campaign that we ran. And the people of Maine deserve to have these votes looked at."
Theriault's campaign has previously identified several "areas of specific concern," including voting results in Presque Isle where they believe the candidate under-performed relative to President-elect Donald Trump. A native of Aroostook County, Theriault carried more than 60% of the vote in the county on Election Day.
The ranked-choice tabulation process also turned up several small-scale reporting mistakes or discrepancies from towns around Maine.
Roderick later said that the campaign appreciates "everyone's patience and support as we work to ensure every vote is counted."
Bellows said the hand recount in the 2nd District likely would not begin until after Thanksgiving because her staff has to complete 10 more recounts in State House races. Those election results must be certified by Nov. 25 in order for the new Legislature to be seated during the first week of December whereas the new Congress isn't sworn in until January. She estimated that the hand-recount itself of the 400,000-plus ballots will take at least three weeks.
Republicans clinched control of the House earlier this week by winning the 218th seat needed to maintain their majority. But Golden’s victory helps narrow the gap between the parties, with roughly a half-dozen other races nationwide still undecided.
According to the official tallies, a total of 403,274 ballots were cast in the 2nd District race. Golden won 48.65% of those ballots while Theriault won 48.11%.
Voters selected write-candidate Diana Merenda as their first-choice candidate on 420 ballots, or 0.10% of the total. But more than 12,000 voters – or 3% of the total ballots cast in the district – either wrote in another name or didn't pick anyone as their first choice.
And it was those 12,000-plus “blank” ballots that necessitated the ranked-choice runoff because they kept Golden from hitting the magic 50%-plus-one-vote threshold he would have needed to win on the initial tally.
Maine’s 2nd District has been in the national spotlight for multiple election cycles as Democrats and Republicans jostle for control of the House. The congressional campaign arms of the two national parties and their allies spent tens of millions of dollars on the race. And the contest
Golden won his first term in 2018 by defeating Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin during the nation’s first ranked-choice runoff for a congressional seat. Golden trailed Poliquin headed into the runoff but catapulted beyond the incumbent after the second-choice preferences were considered for voters who had initially supported other candidates.
Poliquin and his Republican allies challenged, without success, both the results and Maine’s new ranked-choice voting law in court.
