LePage Declared Winner in Maine’s 2nd District After Ranked‑Choice Count

A three-day, certified ranked-choice tally required by state law transferred second-choice votes and produced a Republican flip of the seat.

Overview

The Maine Secretary of State completed the ranked-choice tabulation on Thursday and announced Paul LePage the winner with 50.81% to Matt Dunlap’s 49.18%.
Matt Dunlap conceded last week and LePage has been attending new-member orientation in Washington while the official RCV count was finished for certification.
The race moved to ranked-choice voting because first-choice totals reported on Nov. 5 left no candidate above 50 percent after 6,107 blank ballots and declared write-ins were included in the majority calculation.
State officials ran a three-day, municipal-verified tabulation at the Department of Public Safety in Augusta that was open to the public and livestreamed on the Secretary of State’s YouTube page.
The result flips the seat that Democrat Jared Golden held and gives LePage the only Republican spot in Maine’s congressional delegation while the margin is outside the threshold for a state-funded recount.