With 54%, Janet Mills wins Democratic nomination in race for Maine governor

[TexasTowelie]

AUGUSTA — Attorney General Janet Mills won the Democratic nomination for governor on Wednesday following the nation’s first use of ranked-choice voting to decide a statewide election.

After days of scanning, downloading and certifying ballots, the Secretary of State’s Office ran all of the results from the June 12 election through the ranked-choice voting tabulation software. The result: Mills won the seven-person primary with 54.1 percent of the vote, followed by veteran and attorney Adam Cote with 45.9 percent, in unofficial results. The margin between Mills and Cote – the Democratic front-runners following the balloting last week – was just under 9,500 votes once all of the ranked-choice votes had been reallocated.

A former legislator and district attorney from Farmington, Mills will face off against Republican Shawn Moody and two independents, Alan Caron and Terry Hayes, in November’s race for governor. Both Mills and Hayes, who currently serves as state treasurer, will be vying to become Maine’s first woman governor.

Mills, 70, said she will run a positive campaign “about moving the state forward and about bettering the prospects for the people of Maine,” while praising the contributions of her primary opponents.

Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/06/20/ranked-choice-voting-tabulation-to-start-at-6-p-m/