We wrote about Maine’s ranked choice voting experiment a few weeks back. It seems to have worked pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty well and flipped Maine’s 2nd CD to the Democrat leaving New England in a 21-0 blue to red count in Congress!
Poliquin, the incumbent, led after ballots were initially tabulated, though no candidate had an absolute majority. However, under ranked-choice voting, the lowest-choice candidates were eliminated and their votes reallocated to their second choices. Under that system, Golden, the Democrat, pulled ahead.
The Democrat won even though more people voted for the Republican incumbent.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Pct. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Golden | Democrat | 129,556 | 45.5% |
| Bruce Poliquin* | Republican | 131,466 | 46.2 |
| Tiffany Bond | Independent | 16,500 | 5.8 |
| William Hoar | Independent | 6,933 | 2.4 |
284,455 votes, 95% reporting (399 of 418 precincts)
* Incumbent
Jared Golden, a Marine Corps veteran and Democratic state lawmaker,defeated New England’s lone House Republican, Bruce Poliquin after the incumbent failed to win a majority of the vote and the state’s new ranked-choice voting system came into play. Mr. Golden received the majority of votes in the second round of vote tabulation, according to the Maine
So the process in Maine did extend past election day, effectively working like a recount, but with the bonus that third party and protest votes are not rendered simple and one dimensional. By ranking choices, you can make your protest vote, but not necessarily cause an undesired candidate to ultimately win.
