Recount underway in hotly-contested Maine congressional race

The recount in Maine's hotly-contested 2nd District congressional race is underway, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Emily Cook, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office, said Austin Theriault's campaign requested the recount, and it started around 9 a.m. Monday. She said the recount could take a few weeks if it goes all the way.

In the past, on very large recounts, she said the apparent losing candidate has called off the recount request before it was done once it became clear that the result would not be changing.

The entire recount is being livestreamed on the Secretary of State's YouTube page, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.:

The race wasn't decided until Nov. 15, more than a week after the Nov. 5 election, when Democratic Rep. Jared Golden was declared the winner. As part of the state's ranked choice system, the votes had to be retabulated because first choices failed to produce a majority for any candidate.

Maine’s 2nd District, which is largely rural and known for its lobster fishing and logging, has favored President-elect Donald Trump in each of his three elections.

Neither candidate won a majority of the first place votes on Election Day. The initial count of first-place choices put Golden ahead of Theriault by about 2,000 votes but both fell shy of a majority with less than 49% of the votes cast because of some 12,000 ballots that were either blank or had write-in candidates.

The initial outcome triggered Maine’s ranked choice process. All of the district’s ballots were shipped to the state capital, verified, scanned into a computer and retabulated. Then, any second choices for Golden or Theriault on the blank ballots or by voters for write-in candidates were reallocated to determine a winner.

The race was one of relatively few truly competitive contests nationwide as both parties struggled to control the House of Representatives, and it drew about $50 million in political spending, a large sum for a mostly rural district.

Golden, who was known for his willingness to defy his own party, campaigned on his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans and his advocacy for the lobster industry, which is the crucial to the economy in the region.

“I’ve been one of the most independent-minded members of Congress, one of the most bipartisan,” Golden said during an October debate, adding that he had voted against President Joe Biden “more than any other Democrat in the House of Representatives.”

But Golden was attacked for his opposition to assault weapons, which he announced after an Army reservist used an assault rifle to kill 18 people and injure 13 others in Lewiston in October 2023.

Theriault, who was first elected to the Maine House in 2022, portrayed Golden as too liberal for the district. And although Theriault had the backing of Trump, he also portrayed himself as a potential uniter during a time of division.

“We need more balance and less extremism in Washington,” Theriault said during the debate. “I’m somebody that can go down there and get the job done. I want to advocate for everybody.”

The district’s voters repeatedly sent Golden to Congress after election night-squeakers that weren’t settled without the state’s ranked-choice process. Ranked choice tabulations allowed Golden to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin in 2018, and to win a rematch in 2022.

The voting system adopted by Maine voters in 2016 lets voters rank their first, second and third choices of candidates on the ballot. A candidate who collects a majority of first-place votes is the winner. If there’s no majority winner, then last-place candidates are eliminated and their supporters’ second choices are used to reallocate the votes, and so on, until one candidate surpasses 50%.