Mills, Moody, Golden winners in primary election

In the June 14 primary election, Washington County voters reflected statewide choices in the Maine gubernatorial contests, picking Democrat Janet Mills and Republican Shawn Moody, but differed on their selection for the Democratic nominee for congressman, with Jared Golden winning the race, while the county preferred Lucas St. Clair. And also unlike the state's voters, Washington County residents voted against ranked-choice voting. The primary was the first time that ranked-choice voting was used in a statewide election in the United States. It was used in three of the statewide races  the Democratic and Republican nominations for governor and the Democratic nomination for the 2nd Congressional District. The ranked-choice tabulation delayed the results in those two Democratic races for eight days.
County results are based on unofficial tallies with 83% of the precincts reporting; state results are based on 90% of the precincts reporting.
In the Democratic gubernatorial contest, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills initially received 33% of the vote statewide and 43% in Washington County. For the six other candidates, Adam Cote garnered 28% statewide and 24% in Washington County; Elizabeth Sweet 16% statewide and 17% in Washington County; Mark Eves 14% statewide and 10% in Washington County; Mark Dion 4% statewide and 2.3% in Washington County; Diane Russell 2.3% statewide and 3% in Washington County; Donna Dion 2% statewide and 1.2% in Washington County.
Because Mills did not receive more than 50% of the vote, the Maine Secretary of State's Office on June 20 used the ranked-choice voting tabulation to determine that Mills is the winner with 54% of the vote, with Cote receiving 46% after the five other candidates were eliminated during four rounds of the runoff.
In the Republican race for governor, Gorham businessman Shawn Moody ran far ahead of the three other candidates, garnering 56% of the vote statewide. Trailing were Garrett Mason with 23%, Mary Mayhew with 15% and Kenneth Fredette with 6%. In Washington County the race was closer, with Moody receiving 43% of the vote and Mason garnering 37%. Mayhew got 12% and Fredette 7% in the county.
In the 2nd District congressional race for the Democratic nominee to face incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin, Jared Golden received 49% of the vote statewide but only 41% in Washington County. Lucas St. Clair trailed in the statewide vote with 41%, while he garnered 48% in Washington County. Craig Olson received only 10% in both the statewide and county votes. Following the June 20 ranked-choice voting tabulation, Golden defeated St. Clair 54% to 45%.
Ranked-choice voting was approved by a significant margin statewide, with 54% of the voters favoring the ballot measure. In Washington County, though, 54% were opposed to it.
Maine voters approved the protection of ranked-choice voting by an even larger margin than it was initially approved in November 2016. Reportedly, the higher turnout in this off-year, primary election was a result of Maine voters having the power to rank their choices and to vote on the people's veto to protect the law that voters approved in 2016, as the referendum election was open to independent voters.
With the passage of Question 1, ranked-choice voting will continue to be used in Maine's primary elections for governor, state senator, state representative, U.S. senator and U.S. representative, and in the general elections for U.S. senator and U.S. representative.
In the local contested race for the Republican nominee in House District 141, Kathy Javner of Chester received 280 votes and Roger Ek of Lee received 274, but not all of the precincts had reported.