Democrat Jared Golden beat incumbent GOP Rep. Bruce Poliquin in Maine's 2nd District on Thursday — and made a little bit of history along the way.
Poliquin actually secured 46.2 percent of the vote to Golden's 45.5 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting, per The New York Times and Politico. But Golden still came out on top due to Maine's ranked-choice voting system. It's the first federal race decided by ranked choice, and Golden's win means Republicans have now been ousted from every single congressional seat in New England.
On Election Day, Golden was slightly behind Poliquin in total votes, but neither candidate reached a majority, the Portland Press Herald reports. Maine's ballots also asked voters to rank their second-choice candidate, leaving the race to be decided by voters who'd ranked an independent candidate first. Golden prevailed in the second-choice round, with 10,232 votes to Poliquin's 4,695.
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Maine voters have twice supported ballot initiatives to institute the ranked-choice process, the Press Herald notes. But Poliquin still questioned the legitimacy of the election on Thursday, saying he "won the constitutional 'one-person, one-vote' first choice election on Election Day" in a statement. The two-term congressman also promised to challenge the election results in court.
Regardless of the court's decision, we'll still have Poliquin's remarkably bad campaign ad to enjoy for generations. Kathryn Krawczyk
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