FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Nov. 26, 2018
Contact: Kristen Schulze Muszynski
o: 626-8404/ c: 441-7638

Poliquin campaign requests recount of CD2 ranked-choice election

AUGUSTA – Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has confirmed receipt of a recount request for the Congressional District 2 race in the Nov. 6, 2018 General Election.

The election results, tabulated on Nov. 15 after 5 1/2 days of processing results from the more than 370 towns in CD2, showed candidate Jared F. Golden as the winner of the Representative to U.S. Congress in Congressional District 2 seat, with 139,231 votes to Bruce Poliquin’s 136,326 votes in the final round.

The official results, upon completion of the final certification process on Monday, Nov. 26, show Golden with 142,440 and Poliquin with 138,931 votes. The official tabulation has been updated to include results from six towns whose results did not upload properly into the election reporting software. The discrepancy was identified as part of the due diligence exercised by the Elections staff during the certification process and does not change the outcome of the election.

Congressional District 2 Recount

 

The recount process is estimated to take four weeks to complete and Secretary Dunlap will announce scheduling for the recount once a date is finalized. The recount will take place at the tabulation site in the Elkins Building,19 Elkins Lane, Augusta.

In a recount, representatives of each candidate and staff members from the Department of the Secretary of State manually review each ballot to determine the official vote tally. State law requires the Maine State Police to collect the ballots for the recount and keep them in a secure facility until the recount has been completed. The ballots are stored in tamperproof metal containers and are closed with specially numbered security seals and locks.

The ballots from all hand-count municipalities in Congressional District 2 have been retained at the secure tabulation site from the initial tabulation effort. Additionally, all ballots from Hancock County will be in hand due to a county Judge of Probate recount.  Maine State Police will collect the ballots from towns that use tabulators, as those towns were only required to send their memory devices for the ranked-choice voting tabulation.

Per Maine law, as the margin is more than 1,000 votes in this race, a $5,000 deposit is required and full costs will be charged to the requesting candidate if the result of the election is unchanged at the completion of the recount.

The complete rules for conducting a recount of an office subject to ranked-choice voting are posted on the Elections website.