President Obama wins 4 more years; Maine approves same-sex marriage

67 percent of Aroostook voters reject Question 1
By Mark Putnam
Managing editor
    Aroostook County voters mirrored their national counterparts last week, voting to return incumbent President Barack Obama to the Oval Office by a 53-45 percent margin of victory. In Maine, President Obama collected 56 percent of 706,300 votes while nationwide he attracted 3.38 million more votes than Republican Mitt Romney or 51 percent.
    President Obama received 62,283,914 votes to Romney’s 58,905,252 while in the Electoral College, the vote was 332-206 in favor of the incumbent. American voters also supported a slim 53-45 margin for Democrats in the U.S. Senate while Republicans held onto their majority in the House of Representatives, 233 to 195.
    In Maine, former Governor Angus King was elected to fill Senator Olympia Snowe’s vacated seat with 53 percent of the vote. Independent King outpolled Republican candidate Charlie Summers, 368,782-214,201. Democrat Cynthia Dill attracted 91,658 votes. In Aroostook County, voters also favored King over Summers by a 14,872-11,563 margin.
    Some 76 percent of registered Maine voters, or 706,300 of 925,816, turned out to the polls Nov. 6. A strong majority decided to return incumbent Democrats Chellie Pingree and Michael Michaud back to the U.S. House. In District 1, Pingree turned back challenger Jon Courtney by a 65-35 percent margin, while 58 percent of District 2 voters selected Michaud over Republican Kevin Raye of Eastport, 189,055-134,575. In Aroostook County, the vote was somewhat closer with Michaud winning, 20,345-12,610 or 62 percent.
    On the county level, 67 percent of Aroostook voters rejected Question 1 on same-sex marriage by a vote of 22,512-11,169 but the measure passed statewide with 53 percent of the vote, 369,319-333,036. As for the other bond issues, northern Maine voters favored the conservation (52-48 percent), transportation (75-25 percent) and water system (62-38 percent) improvements while voting down the higher education (45-55 percent) referendum question. Statewide, all but the higher education bond was approved.
    Incumbent Maine Senator Roger Sherman (R) held his seat in District 34, defeating challenger Dan Levesque by a 9,884-6,072 (62 percent) margin. Incumbent Troy Jackson attracted 8,452 votes (51 percent) to narrowly turn away Maine Senate District 35 challenger Peter Edgecomb, who received 7,991 votes.
    In voting for the Maine House of Representatives, a couple of upsets topped the election news as longtime legislator John Martin of Eagle Lake lost his District 1 seat to Republican Allen Nadeau by a 2,132-1,854 (53-47 percent) margin while in House District 5, Republican Michael Willette lost his position to challenger Robert Saucier, 1,928-1,818 (51-49 percent).
    Other Maine House results included: Charles Ken Theriault in District 2 by a 2,481-1,663 margin over GOP challenger Jonathan Roy; District 3 incumbent Bernard Ayotte, 2,024-1,327, over Democrat Gail Maynard; Carol McElwee, a Republican, with 37 percent (1,362 votes) of a three-way vote over Independent Mark Goughan (1,317 votes) and Democrat David Martin (973 votes).
    Also, House incumbent Tyler Clark held his District 6 seat, 2,297-1,548, over challenger Darrell Adams; Democrat Troy Haines lost, 1,979-1,753, in District 7 to incumbent Alexander Willette; incumbent Joyce Fitzpatrick held her District 8 seat by a 2,305-991 margin over Democrat Michael Jenkins; and in District 9, incumbent Republican Ricky Long turned back challenger Patrick Hunt, 1,891-1,314.
    Barry McCrum won the race for County Treasurer, 17,918-13,612, over Anne D’Amboise Pluto, a Democrat, while incumbent Registrar of Deeds, Melissa Willette turned back challenger Lorette Adams, a Democrat, by a 13,431-9,803 margin.
    Voter turnout for Aroostook County was 71 percent with 33,725 of 47,484 registered voters exercising their right to vote.