Ellsworth is pausing its City Council election recount after state officials took custody of the city’s state ballots for the ranked-choice runoff between Republican Paul LePage and Democrat Matt Dunlap, who are vying to represent Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
Ellsworth officials will complete its recount — requested by Tiffany Dilda Gaspar, who was seven votes short of second-place winner Robert Grant Sr. — once the state ballots are returned, according to Amy Kenney, the city’s communications director.
The state ballots are needed for the recount to ensure no municipal ballots were misplaced among them.
The Ellsworth recount marks the second year in a row in which the city council race is under scrutiny. Last year, a city recount confirmed initial results that area businessman and conservative activist John Linnehan lost by just two votes. Linnehan was elected to the city’s School Board this year after decades of failed runs for state and local public offices.
Though the ranked-choice runoff is currently underway, LePage has already declared victory and Dunlap has conceded. LePage joined incoming congressional members in Washington D.C. this week for orientation. The Bangor Daily News and its election results partner Decision Desk HQ have not yet called the race.
It was not immediately clear when the state ballots would be returned to Ellsworth.
In the interim, outgoing city councilors Patrick Lyons, who serves as the governing body’s chair and did not seek reelection, and Nancy Smith, who lost her November reelection bid, will continue to serve on the council. Lyons and Smith will both be at the council’s Monday meeting, according to city officials.
The winners in the races for the city’s school board and library board of trustees will be sworn in during the November council meeting, Kenney said.
Ellsworth officials have not yet announced a timeline for when the council recount will take place, but it is dependent on the state ballots being returned to the city.
All ballots will be reviewed during the recount, but only votes for Grant and Gaspar will be counted, according to city officials.
Ellsworth’s official City Council election results slightly varied from the unofficial results released on election night because the city had not initially tallied auxiliary ballots, which are paper ballots that couldn’t be processed by voting machines, Kenney said.
Auxiliary ballots can’t be counted by voting equipment for various reasons, like the voter using a pencil, incorrectly filling in the oval or making extra marks on the ballot, Kenney said.
Once the auxiliary ballots were counted after election night, the tallies marginally changed, though they had no effect on the election outcome.
Following the recount, former councilor Casey Hanson, who won first place in the November election, and the other winning candidate — either Grant or Gaspar — will be sworn into office.