Maine students choose Mills in mock election

(WMTW) - Students from across Maine have selected Democratic incumbent Janet Mills as the winner of the race for Governor. As of Friday, 116 schools submitted results from the Student Mock Election, with more than 19,000 votes cast. More than 150 schools signed up to take part.

In the governor’s race, Mills got 9,205 votes, republican Paul LePage got 7,107 votes, independent Sam Hunkler got 2,676 votes, and there were 542 write-ins.

In the 1st District Congressional race, incumbent democrat Rep. Chellie Pingree won with 5,176 votes over republican Ed Thelander, who got 3,638 votes. There were 318 write-ins.

The race for the 2nd Congressional District was very close with Democratic incumbent Rep. Jared Golden leading with 3,955 votes. Republican Bruce Poliquin had 3,224 votes and independent Tiffany Bond had 2,460 votes. No candidate had the 50% needed to win, meaning that the race would go to ranked-choice tabulation.

The Secretary’s office will not run further tabulation, though schools could run mini-tabulations of their ballots to simulate what it would look like to re-allocate the second-round votes of the third-place candidate in their school.

“Getting to participate in a mock election is a great way for Maine students to learn about our electoral system in a truly hands-on way,” said Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. “These are our next generation of voters, and their voices matter. Now when they’re old enough to volunteer as a poll worker or participate as a voter in state and local elections, they’ll have this practice from their mock elections.”

Election Day is Nov. 8. Make sure to tune in to Channel 8 at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 for the final debate between the candidates for governor.