AUGUSTA, Maine — Nominees in Maine’s top-tier political races in November are now set after the first statewide election to be decided by ranked-choice voting, and the results have given us a richer profile of how Democrats decided to elect their candidates.
Republicans didn’t need ranked-choice voting in the June 12 primary elections, nominating businessman Shawn Moody for the term-limited Gov. Paul LePage’s seat with 56.5 percent of votes in a first-round landslide, according to unofficial results from the Bangor Daily News.
Two Democratic races went into ranked-choice counting, with Attorney General Janet Mills winning the gubernatorial nomination in a fourth and final round of retabulation. Assistant Maine House Majority Leader Jared Golden won the right to take on U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican from the 2nd Congressional District, in a primary that wasn’t in much doubt after Election Day.
To read the rest of “What Maine learned from its first ranked-choice election,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
