U.S. Rep. Jared Golden declared victory on Nov. 6, 2024 in his race against Austin Theriault in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/ Maine Morning Star)
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden won the ranked choice vote with 50.35% for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which election officials determined Friday through a tabulation process that took four days.
Maine’s 2nd District is among the outstanding races to determine how big of a majority Republicans will hold in the U.S. House after the GOP clinched the 218 House seats needed Wednesday evening, resulting in a Republican trifecta with former President Donald Trump set to reassume office and the Senate flipping red.
In a statement, Golden said, “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.”
Golden won the plurality vote, though by fewer than 2,200 votes over his challenger, Republican state Rep. Austin Theriault. However, ranked choice voting tabulations were needed to determine the winner because neither Golden nor Theriault earned more than 50% of the vote as the race also included a declared write-in candidate, Diana Merenda.
Merenda received 420 votes, and because she had the fewest votes, was eliminated in the second round. Meanwhile, about 12,000 voters either did not select a first choice candidate or wrote the name of another person.
The tabulation process involved election officials and representatives from the Golden and Theriault campaigns verifying vote totals for more than 400,000 residents from every town in CD2 and then reallocating second choice votes to those candidates..
After the second choice allocations, Golden had 197,151 votes, while Theriault had 194,445 votes.
Before adding the second choice votes, Golden had 196,189 votes, or 48.65%, and Theriault had 194,030 votes, or 48.11%, based on the data initially received from municipalities.
Theriault said ahead of the tabulations that he would request a recount of the vote, which his campaign reiterated Friday evening.
“Every Mainer’s voice should be heard and their vote counted in this historically close race and we have seen several anomalies that can only be rectified with a full recount,” campaign manager Shawn Roderick said in a statement. “We appreciate everyone’s patience and support as we work to ensure every vote is counted.”
Golden said 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.”
“I am moving forward with my work in Congress,” Golden continued, “where I will continue to work with anyone — Democrats, Republicans and independents — to lower Mainers’ costs, protect our freedoms and our way of life, and ensure our safety and prosperity.”
Election officials began tabulations at the Maine State Police headquarters building in Augusta on Tuesday morning and completed them Friday night. The entire process was live streamed on the Maine Department of the Secretary of State’s YouTube page, with Bellows narrating each step, “because we want every Maine citizen to know your election is free, fair and secure,” she said on Friday evening.
“If you’re bored after work come on down and join us,” Bellow urged viewers Thursday afternoon. “We don’t have snacks but we do have democracy.”
This is the third time Maine has done a ranked-choice tabulation, each time for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. The first, in 2018, took five business days, while the second in 2022 took three and a half.
Eesha Pendharkar contributed to this story.
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