Politics
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The contest between Republican Paul LePage and Democrat Matt Dunlap for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is heading toward a ranked-choice runoff.
A ranked-choice tabulation will be held starting 10 a.m. Monday, the Maine secretary of state’s office said Thursday morning.
That comes a day after LePage declared victory in the neck-and-neck race at the Sea Dog in Bangor.
Former Gov. LePage’s 5,400-vote first-choice lead over State Auditor Dunlap is more than double the edge that Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Golden held when the Bangor Daily News and Decision Desk HQ called the 2nd District race in 2024. Golden won that runoff against Republican state Rep. Austin Theriault and a recount confirmed it.
To overtake LePage, Dunlap would need to net more than 5,418 votes from the 6,140 ballots that were blank or went to write-ins. But in the 2024 runoff, nearly 91 percent of ballots like those were set aside, and only 380 of more than 10,000 blanks moved to one of the candidates.
If 2024’s patterns hold, less than 300 blank ballots will transfer in the count. Even if Dunlap won all of them, he would still trail by more than 5,000 votes and would likely fall short of the 1.5-point margin needed for a state-funded recount.
It’s the third ranked-choice runoff for the 2nd District since Maine adopted the voting method for primary elections and general election contests for federal offices.
In 2018, Golden came from behind during the ranked-choice runoff to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin. Poliquin sued to overturn the results, but Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker rejected his arguments. A day later, Poliquin dropped his request for a recount.
A ranked-choice runoff is triggered whenever there isn’t a candidate who secures more than 50% of the vote.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.