LePage confirmed winner in Maine’s 2nd District

Maine election officials confirmed Republican Paul LePage as the winner of the 2nd Congressional District race after completing the ranked-choice tabulation, giving him 50.81% of the vote to Democrat Matt Dunlap’s 49.18%. LePage will succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in the U.S. House.

The Maine Secretary of State’s Office completed the count Thursday, Nov. 12. The final tally recorded 170,890 votes for LePage and 165,432 for Dunlap, a margin of 5,458 votes, according to Elections Division figures. The percentages are rounded and do not sum to 100%.

LePage received 49.894% of first-choice votes, short of the majority required to avoid ranked-choice tabulation. State law required the process because no candidate received more than half of the total ballots cast. LePage declared victory the day after the Nov. 3 election, and Dunlap conceded the following day, but officials proceeded with the count as required.

The tabulation addressed blank ballots and votes for declared write-in candidate Gregory Ward. More than 6,000 blank ballots were either reassigned to a second choice or removed from the count if no candidate had been ranked. Officials also manually reconciled...