John Clifford, Ronald McGowan and Jason Nein deliver ballots to the Maine Department of Public Safety on Friday, Nov. 8. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

A total of 11 legislative elections – nine House races and two Senate races – will be settled by hand recounts over the next 10 days.

It’s an unusually large number of vote recounts in Maine and the result of a closely divided electorate in districts around the state. There were three recounts after the last round of legislative elections two years ago and two recounts after elections in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

While recounts rarely change the outcome of a legislative race, nine of the 11 races have the candidates separated by less than 1% of the votes. And one of the races appears to have ended to an even tie, so a single ballot would change the outcome.

There are no required recounts in Maine, but candidates can request one at no cost in legislative races that have a margin of 1.5% or less between the two candidates. If the margin is wider, candidates must put down a deposit with their request, which they are refunded if the results are in their favor.

“In a recount, the representatives of each candidate and staff members from the Department of the Secretary of State manually review each paper ballot to determine the official vote tally,” the secretary of state’s office said in an emailed statement. “The ballots have been or will be retrieved by members of law enforcement from the Department of the Secretary of State’s Enforcement Services Division and delivered to the recount site, where they are stored in a secured room.”

The recounts will begin Friday and are scheduled to continue through Nov. 25 in the Florian Room at 45 Commerce Drive in Augusta. The proceedings are open to the public.

Despite the large number of recounts, the outcomes are not expected to change the balance of power in the Legislature. Leaders of both parties agree that Democrats have retained narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Democrats have chosen a House Speaker and Senate president and Republicans have selected minority leaders for both the House and Senate.

MAINE HOUSE DISTRICT 141

The race between Republican Rep. Lucas Lanigan and Democrat Patricia Kidder for the House District 141 seat representing Shapleigh, Newfield, Sanford and Springvale will enter into a recount on Nov. 21 after the race resulted in a tie.

Lanigan was charged with domestic violence aggravated assault just days before the election. He is accused of assaulting his wife last month after she found him in a Springvale Safe Storage unit with another woman, according to court documents. The arrest warrant states he grabbed his wife’s neck and choked her for about 20 seconds before she was able to leave and call her friends for help.

Sanford police issued a warrant and searched for a weekend before Lanigan turned himself in to the York County Jail on Oct. 28. His wife pleaded with the judge and district attorneys to drop the case, but prosecutors said it’s common for victims to recant and that they would proceed with the charge.

Democratic lawmakers called on Lanigan to pull out of the race, but he stayed in and finished in a tie with his opponent – 2,476 to 2,476. Both candidates were entitled to call for a recount, and if the recount finds that they are still tied, the state will conduct a special election.

Locked blue metal boxes containing ballots or memory devices are seen Tuesday in Augusta during ranked choice voting tabulation for the 2nd Congressional District race. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows says they expect to have results in that race by the end of the week. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

OTHER MAINE LEGISLATIVE  RACES

The first scheduled recount, set to take place Friday, is in House District 96 in Lewiston, where Michael Lajoie holds a 36-vote lead over Kerryl Clement.

Other recounts include the House District 98 race between Guy Lebida and Kilton Webb in the Topsham area, where Webb leads by 54 votes, and House District 81 in the Bethel area, where Joan Beal and Peter Wood are separated by 0.34%.

The recount in the House District 58 race between Sharon Frost and Daniel Newman will be held Nov. 19, as will the House District 75 recount for candidates Stephan Bunker and Randall Gauvin. Frost leads in that race by 0.7%, while Bunker leads by 0.22%, just 10 votes.

A recount has also been requested in the House District 52 race between Sally Cluchey and David Guilmette, who were vying to represent Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Richmond and Perkins Island Township. The official results show Cluchey with 2,748 votes and Guilmette with 2,732.

The recount for House District 44, which includes Hope, Union and Warren, will be held Nov. 20. In that race, William Pluecker leads Ray Thombs by 362 votes, for a 7.1% difference. That is the largest difference in votes between candidates in all of the legislative races slated for recounts. The Secretary of State’s office confirmed that Thombs put down a $2,500 deposit for the recount.

A second recount involving Sanford candidates is scheduled for Nov. 21. In that race, House District 142 Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio leads Amy Bell by 64 votes. The margin of victory in that race is 1.64%, slightly above the state’s threshold, so Bell paid a $500 deposit for the recount.

The recounts will wrap up with the races for Senate District 8 in northern Penobscot County and Senate District 15 in the Augusta area. In Senate District 8, there is a 0.58% difference in votes between Michael Tipping and Leo Kenney. Richard Bradstreet and Raegan LaRochelle are separated by 0.93% in Senate District 15.

Staff Writer Randy Billings contributed to this article.