Politics
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After the city of Sanford corrected a flawed absentee ballot count on Thursday, a Republican lawmaker facing domestic violence allegations was tied with his opponent.
Unofficial results reported on Election Day showed Rep. Lucas Lanigan, R-Sanford, losing his race for a second term to Democrat Patricia Kidder eight days after he turned himself into police on an aggravated assault charge. But Sanford double-counted a batch of absentee ballots, which overstated Kidder’s lead in her home city.
Lanigan won his district’s outlying towns of Shapleigh and Newfield, while Kidder picked up five votes on net from military and overseas voters, bringing the race into a tie at 2,471 votes.
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The race is one of at least four in the closely divided House that are likely heading to a recount after Democrats clinched a narrow House majority in Tuesday’s elections. If the race remains tied after that, Lanigan and Kidder would go to a special election that could be in January.
It was a strange finish to a campaign that was marked by the serious allegations against Lanigan. Police said he strangled his romantic partner during a confrontation over an affair at a storage unit, although his partner later said that the charges should be dropped.
Top Democrats called on Lanigan to resign, while House Republican leaders stopped short of that and said the case was best resolved in the criminal justice system.
