Augusta, Maine: Democrats held on to a swing district in Maine, as two-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden beat back a challenge from a former congressman via ranked choice voting for the second time in four years.
Golden won reelection via the ranked round, Maine’s secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, said Wednesday. He defeated Republican Bruce Poliquin, who held the seat from 2014 to 2018.
Golden had entered the ranked round trailing in 2018, but this election he began the instant runoff with a lead over Poliquin and independent candidate Tiffany Bond.
During the ranked round, votes for third-place finisher Bond were redistributed to the second choices of those who voted for her. Bond was also the third-place finisher in 2018.
State police were deployed around the district to retrieve ballots and memory devices before this year’s ranked tabulation. The retrieval schedule was not made public, but workers for the state were able to start the painstaking vote verification process on Monday. The ranked tabulation then took place Wednesday.
Golden had declared victory in the race last week and treated the ranked round as a formality this time. He said before the count began that his appeal in rural Maine helped carry him to victory.
