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Posted on 11/12/2026 4:20:34 PM PST by Maine Mariner
AUGUSTA, MAINE – The Elections division today completed ranked choice tabulations for the November 3, 2026 General Election Congressional District 2 race. Based on ranked choice tabulations, the final results are as follows:
Paul LePage (170,890, 50.81%) - Winner Matthew Dunlap (165,432, 49.18%) The race went to ranked choice voting after election night results reported by the municipalities yielded 170,263 first choice votes (49.894%) for Paul LePage (R); 164,845 first-choice votes (48.307%) for Matthew Dunlap (D); 123 first-choice votes (0.036%) for declared write-in candidates, and 6,017 blank votes (1.763%). In Ranked Choice Voting races, the winner must receive a majority – more than 50% – of the vote. For more information about how ranked-choice races are tabulated, visit the RCV Resources webpage.
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Paul LePage was an excellent governor of Maine, 2011-2019.
I hope he does well in the future.
Too bad he’s not in the senate. He’ll have to re-up in ‘28. No one else to take his place.
How are blank ballots allocated?
A great patriot!
Blank ballots are always awarded to the Democrat.
I don’t believe they are. Rank Choice Voting requires them to be part of the total on the first count which is why Mr. LePage did not receive over 50% of the vote. However, once RVC starts the bank votes are not part of the total, so Mr. LePage received over 50% and became our Congressman-Elect.
I was worried that the Secretary of State, Bellows, would find enough votes somewhere to prevent Mr. LePage from winning. I am glad I was mistaken.
Not this time!
He’s probably a one and done. He’s already pretty old. He’ll probably just do one term and bow out.
Blank ballots are always awarded to the Democrat.
In this case the blank ballots stayed blank.
I don’t believe they are. Rank Choice Voting requires them to be part of the total on the first count which is why Mr. LePage did not receive over 50% of the vote. However, once RVC starts the bank votes are not part of the total, so Mr. LePage received over 50% and became our Congressman-Elect.
I was worried that the Secretary of State, Bellows, would find enough votes somewhere to prevent Mr. LePage from winning. I am glad I was mistaken.
To better explain the process here. The law refers to total ballots* cast. First all of the ballots are probably not blank. When the State of Maine refers to blank ballots, they a referring to ballots which people chose no candidate for the race (probably chose candidates in other races) or incorrectly voted for multiple candidates as a first choice. If the voted absentee, these ballots cannot be corrected, they go into the mach and result in a non vote. So blank ballots are not necessarily blank for the race in question.
With a rank choice office, one can leave the first choice blank and then chose someone for their second choice. (I don’t know if an overvoted ballot would fall into this category, but a blank first choice does). So the 4,000 plus “blank” ballots had to be reviewed to see if the voter had made a second choice. Until I see the spreadsheet on this race, I won’t know to what extent that may have happened. I anaylised a previous Maine RCV race and saw some of these types of ballots.
* The use of the word ballots here is significant. The law does not say total votes cast which could infer on those ballots where people made a choice.
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