MIDCOAST - Several Maine Legislature races were close enough that they could be subject to recounts should the losing candidate choose to challenge the results.

As of noon Friday, Nov. 9, Megan Sanborn, a spokeswoman for the Maine Secretary of State’s Office, said five recounts had been requested in state legislative races, but none in the Midcoast where two House races and one Senate race were decided by very small margins in the unofficial election night tallies.

Sanborn said municipalities have three days to submit their results to the Secretary of State. Speaking on Thursday morning, she said some of those had yet to arrive and noted that there are more than 3,000 overseas ballots that will factor into the final results.

Maine election law allows a losing candidate five business days to request a recount. If the margin of difference is two percent or less, the recount does not require a payment from the candidate. 

In the Midcoast, several races fall within the two-percent margin of difference, including Senate District 20 in which incumbent Senator Christopher Johnson (D-Somerville) beat challenger Les Fossel (R-Alna) by a 0.6 percent margin; House District 41, where incumbent James Gillway (R-Searsport) beat Meredith Ares (D-Searsport by 1.1 percent of the total votes cast; and House District 45, where challenger Brian Jones (D-Freedom) beat incumbent Ryan Harmon (R-Palermo) by a 0.6 percent margin.

Speaking on Thursday, Jones said he has "complete faith the ballot clerks" but said of his own race, which was decided by 26 votes, "that’s narrow enough to want some kind of inspection, at least in fairness."

A recount in the District 41 contest was the talk of the town in Searsport according to one resident, but speculation may have been fueled by a misprint in many of the state's daily papers showing Gillway winning by 11 votes. The error, which was traced to an incorrect transcription of results from Franfort, took 100 votes from Gillway. By the correct margin of 111 votes, or 1.1 percent, the race is still eligible for a recount without a fee to the candidate.

In contests where the margin is greater than two percent, a scale of fees comes into play, ranging from $500 for margins between two and four percent, to $10,000 in cases where the difference is more than 10 percent of the total votes cast.

(Editor's note: an earlier article that stated James Gillway as a clear winner in the District 41 race mistakenly omitted results from two of the district's six towns. That article has since been updated. This article has also been updated to reflect the 111 vote spread in that race.)

Penobscot Bay Reporter Ethan Andrews can be reached at ethanandrews@penobscotbaypilot.com