AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine election officials said Tuesday that former state Rep. Dale Crafts won the state’s Republican primary in the 2nd Congressional District using ranked choice voting.
Crafts also won the first round of voting on Election Day and both of his opponents, Adrienne Bennett and Eric Brakey, conceded and threw their support behind him in the general election.
Crafts did not crack 50% of the initial vote, triggering another round of voting under Maine’s ranked-choice voting law. In the end, it didn’t make a difference.
In this case, the ballots were shipped to Augusta for another round of voting in which the last-place winner was eliminated and those voters’ second choices were reallocated to the remaining field.
Crafts has described the ranked runoff process as a “dog and pony show” and characterized it as unnecessary because he won the initial round and his opponents have conceded.
He will face first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden on the November ballot.
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