AUGUSTA, Maine — The process of tabulating ranked-choice voting for a crucial congressional election in Maine is set to commence on Tuesday, as officials will begin scanning ballots at a centralized location. The goal is to finalize the results by the end of the week, according to the state’s election authorities.

Democratic U.S. Representative Jared Golden has already announced his victory in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. However, the Secretary of State has indicated that neither Golden nor his Republican opponent, Austin Theriault, achieved more than 50% of the first-choice votes on Election Day. This situation has prompted the need to transfer the ballots to the state capital for further voting rounds.

In Maine’s ranked-choice voting system, voters rank candidates based on their preferences. If no candidate secures a majority of first-place votes, the votes for the candidate in last place are reassigned to the voters’ second choices to determine a winner with a majority.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced that the scanning of ballots will begin on Tuesday afternoon, with plans to run the full tabulation by the end of the week. Following the completion of this ranked voting process, election officials will initiate a formal recount requested by Theriault, due to the extremely narrow margin of votes separating the two candidates.

Currently, both candidates are hovering around 49%, with Golden holding a slight lead of approximately 2,000 votes, as per the latest data from the Secretary of State. While Golden and Theriault were the main candidates on the ballot, organized write-in candidate Diana Merenda from Surry received several hundred votes. Additionally, any second choices from voters who did not select a first choice will also be accounted for, while other write-ins will be regarded as blanks.

This race is among a select few pivotal contests that have yet to declare a winner, as control of the U.S. House remains in balance. The narrow margin in this election follows a trend in which Republican Donald Trump secured victory in the 2nd District, thus allowing him to claim one of Maine’s four electoral votes. Notably, Maine is one of the two states that apportion electoral votes by congressional district.