AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin and the state’s top election official are trading charges as Maine’s new way of voting is put to the test in the 2nd Congressional District race.
Poliquin and the Maine GOP have photos showing ballot boxes with missing padlocks. GOP spokesman Jason Savage raised the specter of ballot tampering.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap acknowledged some boxes were unlocked but said there’s no tampering if the seal is unbroken.
Poliquin’s campaign contends the race should be over because he collected the most first-round votes on Election Day.
But neither he nor Democrat Jared Golden obtained a majority in the four-way race. That triggers additional voting rounds under the ranked-choice system that’s being used for the first time in federal races in Maine.
