AUGUSTA, Maine — After a delay in tabulating ballots, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, won a tight re-election bid against challenger former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, on Wednesday.
The results for Maine's 2nd Congressional District came more than a week after Election Day in a race that was too close to call. No candidate earned 50 percent of the vote, triggering ranked-choice tabulation.
The numbers announced on Wednesday night came to 53.05 percent in favor of Golden, with 46.95 percent in favor of Poliquin. Total votes came to 165,136 for Golden and 146,142 for Poliquin.
In the end, it was the second choice of Mainers who initially voted for independent Tiffany Bond that earned Golden his re-election.
Even before ranked-choice tabulation began, Golden declared victory, anticipating that Bond's voters would carry him over the finish line.
Tabulation started on Monday with results initially expected Tuesday, but a ballot error delayed the numbers to Wednesday.
The late Tuesday evening error happened right when election officials were going to upload the results from the ranked choice race.
A total of 16,000 ballots had to be retrieved from Bangor and Hampden and brought to Augusta for the third day of tabulations, according to Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
"The memory sticks were not successfully acquired by the system. That means we will have to scan those ballots," Bellows said.
On Tuesday night, Maine state troopers left Augusta to retrieve the ballot boxes from Bangor and Hampden.
"It is unclear at this moment [how this happened]. We will be doing some troubleshooting to identify what happened. It may have been an initial programming error, but we won't know until we do an investigation," Bellows said.
Golden released a statement in response to winning re-election on Wednesday:
"I am deeply honored that the people of Maine’s Second District have chosen me to represent them in Washington for another two-year term,” Congressman Golden said. “The Secretary of State’s office and Maine State Police have performed their duties throughout the instant runoff process with professionalism and integrity. I am already back to work at my office in Congress, continuing to help deliver for my constituents and provide thoughtful, independent leadership for the people of our state."
Poliquin released the following statement Thursday morning, conceding the election to Golden:
"My deepest thank you to all the folks of Maine! We ran a strong campaign and put thousands of miles on my Jeep traveling across the district to hear concerns with as many Mainers we could. Although the results didn’t go our way, I am proud of the effort we put forward. As the holidays approach I hope everyone has a time to relax, decompress, and unplug from all the ads that flooded your televisions over the last year.
"My best wishes to Jared Golden and his family. I also wish all Maine families a wonderful Thanksgiving and blessed Holiday Season! Christmas is a magical time of love and goodwill toward all.
"Jared Golden, President Biden and their Democrat majority should reverse course during the next six weeks while they still control everything in Washington. They should work with Republicans to make sure we allow increased supplies of heating oil to lower the cost so our seniors can afford to stay warm this winter. It is critically important we take care of people here in Maine with the rough winter ahead.
"Thank you again to everyone and running to represent you was a privilege."