Democrats have been confirmed as the winners of two legislative seats following hand-recounts in the races.
On Monday, a recount determined that Democrat Kilton Webb beat Republican Guy Lebida by 55 votes in House District 98, which includes the towns of Durham and Pownal as well as parts of Bowdoin, Lisbon and Topsham. That seat was previously held by a Republican.
And on Friday, Democratic Rep. Mike Lajoie defeated Republican Kerryl Clement by 39 votes in House District 96, which encompasses part of Lewiston. Lajoie has served five nonconsecutive terms in the House.
The secretary of state’s office still has nine more hand recounts to conduct in legislative races: seven more in the House and two in the Maine Senate. That list includes House District 141 in the Sanford area where the two candidates, Republican Rep. Lucas Lanigan and Democrat Patricia Kidder, were tied at 2,476 votes each after the initial vote count.
The other recounts are being held in House Districts 44, 52, 58, 75, 81 and 142 as well as in Senate Districts 8 and 14. Those recounts are scheduled to wrap up by Monday, Nov. 25.
Democrats are poised to retain control of both the Maine House and the Senate next session, albeit by smaller majorities after Republicans made gains in this month’s elections.
After the legislative recounts are done, elections staff will turn to the much more time-consuming task of conducting a hand recount of the more than 400,000 ballots that were cast in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden was declared the winner of the race on Friday following a ranked-choice runoff, but Republican Austin Theriault has requested a recount because of the two candidates are separated by less than 0.5 percent.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
