Democrat Jared Golden Wins Maine House Race with Selective Election: NPR

Democrat Jared Golden, left, greets supporters as they wait for polling day in Lewiston, Maine. Golden was declared the winner on Thursday because of the state's new hierarchical choice vote system.

Joel Page / AP

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Joel Page / AP

Democrat Jared Golden, left, greets supporters as they wait for polling day in Lewiston, Maine. Golden was declared the winner on Thursday because of the state's new hierarchical choice vote system.

Joel Page / AP

Updated at 14:06 ET

A House Republican who represents northern Maine is the last candidate to be removed from office while the blue wave of Democrats continues to fail more than a week after polling day.

Democrat Jared Golden was declared the winner Thursday in the second congressional district of Maine, after fleeing representative Bruce Poliquin in the initial vote count. But Golden was declared the winner thanks to Maine's new hierarchical choice vote system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference and to transfer their votes if no candidate obtains more than 50% of the vote.

This is the first time that the country uses hierarchical choice voting at a general election for a congressional seat. The electors of Maine ratified the vote of choice through a voting initiative two years ago.

Mr Golden thanked his supporters on Thursday that he would not collect money from lobbyists and business PPCs and that he would remain accountable to his constituents.

While Golden was behind Poliquin with about 2,000 votes after the first vote, he won the second round by ranking 2nd and 3rd choice of voters having chosen independents Tiffany Bond and Will Hoar as first or second choice for # 39; election. Day. The final vote was 50.53% to 49.47%, or about 3,000 votes.

This brings to 35 the net gain of seats of Democrats. As the number of seats continues in various tight races across the country, Democrats could ultimately win up to 39 seats. These are the largest seats in the House of Democrats for a generation – in any election since the election wave after Watergate in 1974.

Thursday's result also means that New England Republicans have been eliminated at the US House. Senator from Maine, Susan Collins is the only Republican in the region who remains of Congress.

Last minute court challenge

The careful enumeration was carried out amid a last-minute court challenge in a federal court by Poliquin and three voters from Maine's second parliamentary district. Poliquin's lawyer asserted that Maine's hierarchical choice vote law violated the US Constitution in many ways. However, Poliquin's request to suspend the count by a restraining order was dismissed by Judge Lance Walker of the US District Court.

Walker held a two-hour hearing at Poliquin's request on Wednesday, just as state election officials were finalizing the ballot scanning process for the final vote compilation on Thursday.

In a statement issued after the announcement of the results, Poliquin said he would continue to pursue his lawsuit.

"It is now officially clear that I won the constitutional election" a vote by a person "on the first election day on election day, used in Maine for over a hundred years. We will continue with our constitutional concerns regarding the rank voting algorithm, "he said.

Golden said that he respected Poliquin's decision to pursue his lawsuit.

What's left?

In addition to the reports in Florida and the outstanding votes in the race for the Governor of Georgia, there are still seven races in the House to call. Among them, Democrats can very well win four. Take a look at the 39th and 45th congressional districts of California, as well as in the 22nd and 4th districts of New York.

In California, there are still about 3 million votes to count, according to the latest figures from the California State Secretary's Office, updated Wednesday afternoon.

39 in California^th Republican Young Kim now has 122 votes more than Democrat Gil Cisneros, who continues to close as new ballots are counted in Orange County. The Democrat in the 45^th The district has now taken some time.

Republicans lead in three other races not called – 7 of Georgia^th, The 27th of New York^thand Texas & # 39; 23^rd Congress districts and appear in stronger positions in these.