June 23, 2008 - 7:54am
After tie-vote, Yarmouth House seat still up for grabs
By Wally EdgeOn election night, they were tied. Now, after a recount the Secretary of State has reported that 484 ballots were cast for Melissa Walsh Innes and 482 for Kimberly McLaughlin.While the recount gives Innes a two-vote margin, three ballots are being disputed -- one by McLaughlin and two by Innes. Which means -and Al Gore is not going to like this--- the state Supreme Court has to decide voter intent on those three disputed ballots.
The process is fairly straight forward. According to Julie Flynn, who heads up Maine's election division, "We will make arrangements to transfer the three disputed ballots, along with any other supporting documentation the Court wishes to have available for review, into the Court's custody. Once they take possession of the disputed ballots, the Court can make one of three possible determinations with regard to each one: either the ballot was cast for Innes, cast for McLaughlin, or it was cast for neither of the two."
The eventual winner will face Republican Brian Bicknell in November.
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Whom the ballots are
Whom the ballots are disputed by doesn't tell us a lot. Did the candidates only dispute ballots that otherwise would have been counted as votes for their opponent or did one or both of the candidates dispute a ballot that would otherwise have been counted as an undisputed non-vote but which they alleged showed clear enough intent under Maine law to be a vote for them? My guess is they are all the former, which would mean McLaughlin could at best tie Innes the election if all the disputes were decided in her favor (two McLauglin votes and one vote for neither candidate), but it isn't clear based on this article (or the Secretary of State's press release and all other articles I've read on the recount that have had that level of detail). McLauglin could win outright if all three disputes were between a ballot being a McLauglin vote and a neither vote (or potentially McLauglin, Innes or neither) and all three ballots were determined to be McLauglin votes. Innes, however, needs only one of the ballots to be determined to be an Innes vote and/or two of the ballots to be determined to be a neither vote in order to win the primary without the need for the Secretary of State to select the nominee by lot (which is the final provision in a primary in case of a tie). My guess is Innes is determined to have won the primary, notwithstanding the fact the the Yarmouth Democratic Committee endorsed McLauglin (I read today on As Maine Goes) and the fact that the Democratic town Chair is representing McLaughlin in the recount.
*State* Supreme Court
Oh yeah, I don't think Al Gore would have minded if the Florida Supreme Court decided the winner of the presidential election in Florida (and thus the President based on the results in other states) in 2000. Okay, I'm kind of joking as I really don't think Gore tried to steal the election, but I'm just pointing out how your amusing comment was slightly off the mark.
Disputed ballots
I am aware that the 3 disputed ballots are indeed votes for a candidate (2 against Mcglaughlin, 1 against Innes). At best, Mcglaughlin can hope for a flip of the coin, at worst, Innes can fear the same.
I'm surprised not to see much mention of the Yarmouth Democratic Chair representing Mcglaughlin. Why didn't he first recuse himself of his role or be asked to step down by party leadership? Perhaps I'm missing something, but it just seems like horrible judgment on his part.
Thanks, Yarmouth Democrat
I assume you mean two of the disputes are between McLaughlin and neither candidate and the other one is between Innes and neither candidate. Maybe they could have the coin flip now, in which case Innes could drop her challenges and concede McLaughlin's challenge to her vote if she won the coin flip and just focus on the most challengable of the two McLaughlin votes (or how that vote is more ambiguous than the vote of hers McLaughlin challenged) if she lost the coin flip? I know they wouldn't do that, and Innes would like to be able to say she won the primary outright and not due to a random tie-breaker.
If each dispute has a 50-50 chance of going either way (not counting the ballot being counted as a vote for the candidate it is less arguably a vote for), than Innes has a 93.75% chance of being the Democratic nominee and an 87.5% chance of winning the nomination without the need for a coin flip (is that what the tiebreaker would be?).
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