The Maine Secretary of State’s Office announced Thursday morning that the race for the 2nd Congressional District’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives would be moving on to ranked-choice voting tabulations, as no one candidate
earned more than 50% of the vote.
Shortly afterward, however, Democratic candidate Matt Dunlap conceded the race to Republican Paul LePage, saying in a statement that he and his team “do not currently believe that ranked choice voting will change the results of this race.”
"This isn't the result we were hoping for, and I'm disappointed that we came short,” Dunlap wrote. “Congratulations to Paul LePage, I wish him the best.”
“I want to thank every volunteer who knocked doors, made calls, and made their voices heard,” he said. “Your support inspired me, and I'm honored to have worked side by side with you over the past year."
LePage’s campaign team also released a statement Thursday morning addressing the election and expressing confidence, following conversations with local officials “that Paul LePage is the Congressman-Elect” and that his “vote margin is extremely large.”
“Paul LePage looks forward to working for all of the people of Maine's 2nd District, working with anyone – and everyone – regardless of Party to put Maine first,” his campaign said.
Of the 341,248 ballots cast in the race, 170,263 (49.894%) went to LePage, 164,845 votes (48.307%) went to Dunlap, 123 votes (0.036%) were for declared write-in candidates, and 6,017 (1.763%) were left blank.
Because of the write-in votes and blank ballots, no one candidate reached the 50% threshold required under ranked choice voting rules, the Secretary of State’s Office said that tabulations would begin on Monday, November 9.
"The first step in the process will to be to verify the vote totals from every municipality to ensure accuracy," said Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in a statement Thursday morning. "Once the election night totals are verified, assuming neither candidate received a majority of the votes, which is what we are observing now, we will proceed to the ranked choice voting tabulation."
Now that Dunlap has conceded the race, however, it is not clear whether or not the state will still proceed with ranked choice voting tabulations.
The 2nd Congressional District consists of all municipalities and unorganized territories located in Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo and Washington Counties, as well as the municipalities of Augusta, Belgrade, Chelsea, Farmingdale, Fayette, Gardiner, Hallowell, Manchester, Monmouth, Mount Vernon, Oakland, Randolph, Readfield, Rome, Sidney, Vienna, Wayne, and Winthrop in Kennebec County.
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