FRANKLIN COUNTY – Voters across the county took advantage of early or absentee voting prior to Tuesday’s election, while others turned out in force to make their voices heard through the polls on Election Day.
As of 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 20 of the 21 towns in Franklin County have reported their preliminary results, along with the neighboring town of Vienna in Kennebec County. Results from the unorganized territories are included with the municipality in which those residents voted.
Locally, while democrat candidates lead the race in federal house and state governor, republican candidates are carrying the state senate seats. Republican candidates are leading in three of the five state house districts that cover Franklin County.
For the Maine gubernatorial race, democrat candidate and incumbent Governor Janet Mills received 7,484 votes, while former republican Governor Paul LePage received 7,267 votes. Independent candidate Sam Hunkler had 348 votes.
Governor Janet Mills’ campaign released a statement claiming victory shortly before midnight Tuesday.
Mills carried the majority vote in Sandy River Plantation, Weld, Industry, Kingfield, Temple, Carrabassett Valley, Coplin Plantation, Wilton, and Farmington.
LePage had a majority in Rangeley, Eustis, Rangeley Plantation, Chesterville, Phillips, New Sharon, Jay, New Vineyard, Avon, Strong, Carthage, and Vienna.
For District Two in the Federal House of Representatives, democrat incumbent Jared Golden stepped away with 7,526 votes while republican Bruce Poliquin took 6,220 votes and independent Tiffany Bond took 1,067 votes. This race is a ranked-choice vote and these preliminary results are based on the first round of ranked choice votes.
As none of the three candidates in this race have more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be an ‘instant runoff’. Golden’s campaign announced Thursday that they are now considering this a formality as a win by Poliquin is considered ‘functionally impossible’. The results are expected to be tabulated by Tuesday next week.
Golden led the race in the towns of Sandy River Plantation, Weld, Industry, Kingfield, Temple, Eustis, Carrabassett Valley, Chesterville, Farmington, Jay, Coplin Plantation, Wilton, and Vienna.
Poliquin carried the towns of Avon, New Sharon, Phillips, Rangeley Plantation, New Vineyard, Carthage, Strong, and Rangeley.
State Senate District 19 saw democrat Matthew Bean with 2,058 votes and republican Lisa Keim with 3,080 votes.
State Senate District 5 candidates were republican Russell Black, 5,308; democrat Stan Wheeler, 3,766; and independent Doug Thomas, 651.
For the State House of Representatives:
District 58 – democrat Robert Neal, 613; republican Dan Newman, 556.
District 73 – democrat Vincent House, 1,472; republican Michael Solobeski, 1,808.
District 74 – democrat Greg Kimber, 1,568; republican Randall Hall, 2,717.
District 75 – democrat Scott Landry, 2,501; republican Tiffany Estabrook, 1,335.
District 76 – democrat Tamara Hoke, 1,024; republican Sheila Lyman, 1,206.
These districts may include towns outside of Franklin County.
The seat for Franklin County Commissioner in District 3 is up for election; republican Robert Carlton has 3,311 votes and democrat Betty Ann Listowich has 2,148.
For District Attorney, Neil McLean Jr. received 8,085 votes while Edward Rabasco Jr. had 5,840.
Several Franklin County officials have run uncontested: Pam Prodan for County Treasurer, Margot Joly for Judge of Probate, and Susan Black for Register of Deeds.
These numbers are for Franklin County and neighboring communities. Avon, Carrabassett Valley, Carthage, Chesterville, Coplin Plantation, Eustis, Farmington, Industry, Jay, Kingfield, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Phillips, Rangeley, Rangeley Plantation, Sandy River Plantation, Strong, Temple, Weld, Wilton, and Vienna have reported results of the elections.
Results are still pending for Dallas Plantation.
This story will be updated.
Editor’s note: Last week the incorrect results for the town of Wilton were reported to The Daily Bulldog for the Federal House of Representatives race. This has been corrected as of Monday, Nov. 14.
