AUGUSTA, Maine — Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has opted to rely on precedent in his decision to provisionally seat Democrat Catherine Breen of Falmouth in Maine Senate District 25 until January, when the Senate will vote on whether to accept the results of Tuesday’s recount that reversed her victory.
Breen appeared to win the district by 32 votes, according to unofficial results tallied on Election Day. However, Tuesday’s ballot recount, which was requested by Republican Cathy Manchester of Gray, showed that Manchester won by 11 votes.
Breen and the Maine Democratic Party, citing a handful of ballots that are unaccounted for, have not accepted the results of the recount, which sends the matter to a Senatorial Vote Committee.
That yet-to-be-appointed panel — four Republicans and three Democrats who will be named by presumptive Senate President Mike Thibodeau, a Republican from Winterport — will make recommendations in advance of a vote of the full Senate. That will likely take place in early January.
It was unclear until Thursday afternoon who would be representing Senate District 25 when a new Legislature is sworn in on Dec. 3, but Dunlap, a Democrat, has relied on historical precedent to provisionally seat Breen, according to his spokeswoman, Kristen Schulze Muszynski.
Dunlap made the decision after consulting with Attorney General Janet Mills, also a Democrat.
Joshua Tardy, an attorney representing the Republican caucus in this matter, said he respects Dunlap’s decision because of the precedent it’s based on but doesn’t see a path to victory for Breen.
“I certainly respect the process that was employed by the secretary of state and him seeking the opinion of the attorney general, but in this particular case, the distinction I would make is that the disputed ballots aren’t enough to impact the outcome of the election,” said Tardy. “This isn’t about being an apparent winner. In my opinion, Cathy Manchester is the clear winner.”
The Maine Democratic Party has maintained since the recount that there are more disputed ballots than the recount revealed and that Breen has a path to victory, albeit an unlikely one. The party contends that there are 10 ballots unaccounted for and nine in dispute, meaning the intent of the voter on those ballots was unclear.
“The party’s position is that with 10 unaccounted-for ballots and nine disputes, we at the very least need to find those missing ballots and then figure out where we go from there,” said Kate Knox, an attorney for the Democratic party.
Who sits in the District 25 seat on Dec. 3, when new lawmakers are sworn in, would not matter much except that the Legislature is expected to elect the state’s three constitutional officers on that date. Those offices include the attorney general, the state treasurer and the secretary of state.
A majority vote of the 186-person Legislature, which amounts to 94 lawmakers, is required to elect Maine’s constitutional officers. With Manchester in the seat, Democrats would hold 93 seats and therefore have to rely on a solid, no-absences vote from their caucus plus support from at least one of four House independents.
Gov. Paul LePage sparred often with Mills during her two most recent years as attorney general and — after his Nov. 4 re-election — urged legislators to elect someone else as attorney general.
