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ArcticStones's avatar

ME-02: Yesterday, Maine started its ranked choice tabulation in the House contest between Democratic incumbent Jared Golden and Republican challenger Austin Theriault. It is expected to take 3 to 5 days to complete. This is the third ranked-choice runoff in the past four elections for Maine's 2nd Congressional District.

Even though Golden won more than 50% of first-choice votes, and leads by 0.3%, Golden is below the 50% threshold when all votes are considered. There were 420 write-in votes for Diana Merenda, and more than 12,000 voters didn't indicate any candidate as their first-ranked choice.

Before the RCV tabulation, Golden has a 2100-vote advantage. The live RCV count will eventually be displayed here:

https://mainemorningstar.com/2024/11/12/how-to-watch-the-ranked-choice-run-off-for-maines-2nd-congressional-district/

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Absentee Boater's avatar

It’ll be interesting to see how many people who left the first choice blank actually put any other choices.

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Jonathan's avatar

It's a stupid thing that they are doing though (ONLY 2 candidates actually qualified)

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Andrew's avatar

I believe that’s the point as there were 12k ballots like that. That’s what makes him under the majority of total Congressional race voters while having a majority of 1st choice voters.

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Mark's avatar

So he got a majority but he didn't? Every time I think I understand RCV, I discover there's another layer of complication I hadn't considered.

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Jonathan's avatar

Bellows made an idiotic decision imo

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ArcticStones's avatar

Agreed. And for obvious reasons, Theriault’s chances are literally nil.

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Andrew's avatar

People who skipped the 1st choice vote but did pick a 2nd choice (who the fuck does that?!?) means that he won a majority of people who ranked him 1st but not a majority of people who voted in the Congressional race.

It’s stupid but fair. Bc again, who the fuck votes like that?!? It’s people thinking their first choice is Mickey Mouse but that’s not an option so I’ll just start with my 2nd. Same type of dumb fucks who fill in the bubble for Al Franken but then write in Lizard People. That guy is an absolute legend, don’t get me wrong.

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