Republican State Rep. Austin Theriault will demand a recount of the election results from his race against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep Jared Golden, the Maine Wire can confirm.
Currently, Golden holds a lead over Theriault of less than one percent, 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent, and he has been declared the victor by many media organizations as more than 95 percent of precincts have reported vote totals.
In terms of raw numbers, Golden earned 192,154 votes while Theriault earned 189,751 votes, meaning more than 2,400 votes will need to be reversed or newly discovered in order to change the outcome of the election.
Theriault is the first major politician to demand a recount in a northern Maine election since former Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) denied the results of the Allagash board of selectman election.
[RELATED: Troy Jackson Loses Allagash Ballot Recount…]
Despite his position as the highest ranking state lawmaker in Augusta, and the condo he maintained in Augusta at the time as his home, Jackson nonetheless sought the prestigious position at the top of Allagash’s three-member selectboard.
Jackson lost that race 70 to 78 on March 24, 2023.
After initially signaling that he would concede the loss, Jackson later changed his mind and demanded a recount.
The Maine Wire was on the scene to observe the April 11 recount in which the original vote count of 70 to 78 was changed to 71 to 77, with Jackson still deemed the loser in his hometown election.
Despite denying the results of the election, questioning the integrity of the vote-counting process, and demanding a recount, Jackson did not afterward change his opposition to a proposed Voter ID law, which supporters argue would make Maine’s elections more secure.
If I had to count on Shanna Bellows for a fair honest count, I would want a recount too.