The Maine Secretary of State tweeted this morning that the winner of the CD-2 race will be determined at noon today. The SoS office completed scanning all of the ballots for the Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) instant runoff this morning and will be running the tabulation of all of the 2nd- and 3rd-choice votes at noon. Exit polls predict a win for the challenger, Jared Golden (D).
Maine SoS
Bruce Poliquin, the Republican incumbent, has filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the vote counting and invalidate RCV. After a hearing yesterday, the judge indicated he may rule today on Poliquin’s request for an immediate Temporary Restraining Order. Should that ruling be issued in Poliquin’s favor before noon, the election results won’t be tabulated.
The two candidates were locked in at about 46% of the vote each — 2,000 vote margin in Poliquin’s favor — with 2 left-leaning independents taking 8% of the total. Since neither major party candidate got a 50% majority, the 2nd place votes of the two independents are being reallocated for a final total.
Update: The request for a Temporary Restraining Order was denied so the tabulation will go forward. Results should be out this afternoon.