FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, July 2, 2018
Contact: Kristen Schulze Muszynski
o: 207-626-8404/ c: 441-7638

Secretary Dunlap announces results of ballot recount for House District 1

AUGUSTA — A recount of ballots cast has been completed for the office of State Representative in District 1, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced Monday.

The final recount tabulation shows that Ronald Pulchlopek, write-in candidate in the House District 1 Republican primary, has a total of 40 votes, which is below the threshold required to appear on the Nov. 6, 2018 General Election ballot.

House District 1 includes part of the Town of Kittery. Pulchlopek ran unopposed for the Republican nomination. To qualify for the general election ballot, a write-in candidate is required to receive twice as many votes as the signatures they would have submitted to qualify for the ballot. Thus, Pulchlopek would need to have at least 50 write-in votes. Unofficial preliminary results show that the candidate received 41 votes. During the recount review process, one of those votes was eliminated because the voter had not filled in the oval next to the name, as required by law.

A recount has also been requested for the House District 110 Republican primary. This district includes parts of the towns of Oakland and Waterville. In unofficial results, candidate Mark Andre received 210 votes, while candidate Jacob Imes received 203. The time and date will be announced when that recount is scheduled.

Recounts are a public proceeding. House District recounts are typically completed in one day. In a recount, the 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.

Results of the recount will be posted on the Maine Department of the Secretary of State website and Facebook page and released to the media via email.

State law requires the 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.