PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Presque Isle voters turned down a $15 million proposed school consolidation bond and chose city and school representatives on Election Day.
On Wednesday morning City Clerk Tom King announced that of the 3,206 ballots cast in the SAD 1 referendum, 1,793 residents (56 percent) voted against the bond while 1,413 (44 percent) voted in favor. The right-sizing plan would have involved closing both elementary schools and renovating Presque Isle middle school to accommodate all K-8 students.
In other election results, both the city council and school board have elected or re-elected members. Terry Sandusky of Mapleton won re-election to a three-year term on the SAD 1 School Board with 55 percent of the vote, while opponent Sheldon Nelson, also of Mapleton, received 45 percent of the vote.
Current city councilor Doug Cyr, who gained his seat one year ago to replace outgoing councilor Natalie Graves, was elected to a four-year term on the council along with Jeffrey Willette. Cyr received 1,493 votes while Willette received 1,469 votes. Other candidates were Don Gardner (1,275 votes) and Maureen Hanley (938 votes). Jacob Shaw, who was the lone candidate running for a council seat that has one year remaining, received 2,605 votes.
In other local election results, Larry Peary was elected city ward with 17 write-in votes, while Donald Savage was named ward clerk with 2,785 votes.
For the local Senate races, Democrat Sarah LeClaire was elected to serve House District 146 — which includes Blaine, Castle Hill, Chapman, Mapleton, Mars Hill, Perham, Wade, Washburn, Westfield, Woodland — gaining 1,311 of the total votes while opponent Dustin White, a Republican, received 2,478 votes.
In District 147 — serving Presque Isle — Republican Trey Stewart was re-elected with 1,735 votes while opponent Bob Saucier received 1,244 votes. For District 148 — serving Caswell, Cyr Plantation, Easton, Fort Fairfield, Hamlin, Limestone, Presque Isle and Stockholm — Democrat David McCrea was elected with 1,584 votes while Republican Katherine Schupbach received 710 votes.
In a close race that is too close to call at publication, but will be determined by ranked-choice voting, Republican Bruce Poliquin is currently leading congressional District 2 in Aroostook County, with 11,786 votes, according to data from the Bangor Daily News, while his main opponent, Democrat Jared Golden has received 8,917 votes thus far.
Statewide at the time of publication, Poliquin led Golden 124,112-123,410.
On the state level, U.S. Senator Angus King gained 54 percent of the vote to retain his seat while opponents Eric Brakey, a Republican, gained 36 percent of the vote, and Zak Ringelstein, a Democrat, earned 10 percent of the vote.
In a close gubernatorial race, Democrat Janet Mills was elected with 49 percent of the vote while Republican Shawn Moody gained 44 percent of the vote while Independent Terry Hayes earned 6 percent of the vote.
Question 4 on the state referendum ballot, which looks to give $49 million in workforce development funds to the University of Maine System campuses, including those in Presque Isle and Fort Kent, passed with 54 percent of the vote against 46 percent opposed, while Question 5, which looks to give $15 million to the Maine Community College System, passed with 65 percent of the vote with 35 opposed.
King stated that out of the 6,700 registered voters in Presque Isle around 50 percent voted in Tuesday’s election.
Check TheCounty.ME for updates on local and state election results.
