AUGUSTA, Maine — The recount of hundreds of thousands of ballots associated with two referendum questions is set to begin and could take weeks.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced Tuesday that the recount for Question 1, which would legalize recreational marijuana, will begin Monday.
The recount for Question 2, which would implement a 3 percent tax on income above $200,000 to benefit public schools, starts Thursday.
The recounts will be run concurrently at the Maine Department of Public Safety building at 45 Commerce Drive in Augusta. They are open to the public.
Kristen Muszynski, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said the recounts could take up to six weeks unless they are stopped early because one of the parties requesting them concedes.
“It’s pretty rare to go all the way through,” Muszynski said. “Generally they would decide to concede at some point if the numbers are not moving in their favor.”
Both questions passed with razor-thin margins, after nearly 760,000 ballots were cast earlier this month. Question 1 won by just 4,073 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s office, which is a margin of about 0.5 percent.
Question 2 resulted in a difference of 9,580 votes, or about 1.3 percent. Both are below the 1.5 percent threshold under which recounts are conducted at no charge to the entities that request them.
Dunlap has estimated the cost of each recount at close to $500,000, with most of that for Maine State Police to collect and deliver the ballots to Augusta, though running the recounts concurrently is expected to save some money.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said there is no money set aside to pay for collecting ballots and that most troopers accomplish that during their regular shifts.
“It does take away from what other duties they have,” McCausland said.
The recounts will be administered by elections staff from the Secretary of State’s office and will be overseen by attorneys and volunteers from the opposition and proponents of each referendum.
The ballots, which are stored in tamper-proof metal containers closed with specially numbered security seals and locks, will be kept in a secure location by the Maine State Police.
