Senate District 4 Republican primary going to ranked-choice voting

The Republican primary for Senate District 4, which consists of all of Piscataquis County and a number of nearby Penobscot County towns, will proceed to ranked-choice voting tabulation after none of the four candidates met the 50% threshold.

The Maine secretary of state’s office announced Tuesday this and one House of Representative race, both Democratic and Republican primary races for governor and the Democratic primary for Maine’s 2nd Congressional seat will all be going to ranked choice.

With 27 of 29 municipalities reporting, Chad Perkins of Dover-Foxcroft leads with 2,696 votes or 47.9% of the total. He is followed by Joseph Guerin of Glenburn with 1,815 votes (32.2%), Zachary Wood of Levant with 892 votes (15.8%) and Gregory Pierce of Glenburn with 230 votes (4.1%).

The ranked-choice tabulation process began Wednesday, June 12, at the Maine Department of Public Safety Headquarters in Augusta and is expected to conclude this week. The ranked choice process is being livestreamed on the secretary of state’s YouTube page.

In ranked-choice voting races, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the first-choice votes as counted on Election Day to win the race outright. If no candidate appears to have achieved this based on initial unofficial results reports from the municipalities, the secretary of state’s office makes the determination to proceed with the ranked-choice voting tabulation.  

Votes are tabulated in rounds, with the lowest-ranking candidate eliminated each round until two remain. The candidate determined to have received the majority (more than 50%) of the votes in the final round is declared the winner. 

For more information about how ranked-choice races are tabulated, visit the RCV Resources webpage on the Secretary of State website.

Official results will be posted within 20 days after the election on the Election Results page.