Detectives of the Department of the Secretary of State move ballot boxes into the tabulation room on Thursday. Ballot counting continues for ranked choice runoff in the 2nd Congressional District race between Jared Golden and Austin Theriault. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA — Election officials, who have been steadily slogging their way through the vote tallies for every town in Maine’s sprawling 2nd Congressional District, said they expect to run a final tabulation of the ranked choice vote on Friday.

Once they are ready to tabulate the final results, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said, “It’s going to happen almost instantaneously.”

The outcome will determine whether U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat, will return to Capitol Hill for a fourth term.

The ranked choice tabulation began Tuesday, with a careful check to verify the ballots cast in each municipality, with representatives from both candidates’ campaigns watching closely.

“It’s kind of like watching paint dry,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said. “It’s not super exciting, but it is very important.”

Election results reported by the towns initially indicate that Golden likely won a narrow victory in the hotly contested race. He has said that he won. But Republican Austin Theriault of Fort Kent hopes the final outcome of the ranked choice voting might push him over the top.

In the first round of voting, Golden got 48.6% of the nearly 400,000 votes cast compared to 48.1% for Theriault. A total of 2,159 votes separated the two men.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows gives updates on a live-stream during ballot counting for ranked choice runoff in the 2nd Congressional District race between Jared Golden and Austin Theriault. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

Since neither got 50%, the Secretary of State’s Office is going to add in the second-place choices from about 12,000 ballots that didn’t indicate a first-place choice or wrote in Diana Merenda, the only declared write-in candidate. She got about 400 first-place votes.

It isn’t clear how many of the 12,000 ballots that will be redistributed have a second choice recorded. Many of them may simply be blank for the congressional race.

If either candidate loses by a narrow margin — less than 1% — he is likely to request a recount, which the law provides for free in close contests. Theriault has already indicated an interest in doing so. If there is a recount, it will probably take place after Thanksgiving and take a couple of weeks.

The verification process allows both candidates’ campaigns to review every decision. Those involved said they’re getting along well and generally agreeing with one another about any choices made.

One possible hitch is that some towns, including Embden and Fairfield, mistakenly placed auxiliary ballots that couldn’t be counted by a machine in the same pile as the ballots that were tallied. They should have been kept separate, officials said.

But it doesn’t appear the problem, which Bellows said is understandable when tired election workers are trying to pack up at the end of a long day, will have a significant impact on the overall count. In Embden, for example, a separate record showed there were 14 auxiliary ballots, with seven voting for Theriault and six for Golden. It isn’t clear, though, if the one other ballot picked either of them as a second choice.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows speaks to reporters during ballot counting for ranked choice runoff in the 2nd Congressional District race between Jared Golden and Austin Theriault. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

All told, officials said that every town in five of the 11 counties has been processed completely, including every one whose ballots had to be run through a counting machine. They had been hand-counted by the municipalities.

Bellows said the entire process has been livestreamed on YouTube with a running commentary from the secretary of state and others.

At one point, Bellows urged people watching to come see it in person.

“We don’t have snacks,” she said, “but we do have democracy.”

This marks the third time there has been a ranked choice runoff in the 2nd District. In 2018, Golden defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin when he picked up enough second-choice votes to overcome Poliquin’s first-round lead. In 2022, Golden won easily after falling just shy of 50% in the first round.

The contest between Golden and Theriault cost more than $50 million, one of the most expensive in the nation, as partisans poured money into Maine to try to influence the outcome. Control of the U.S. House was expected to come down to a handful of races nationally — and that’s exactly what happened. The GOP maintained control, but its majority will remain razor thin.

If Theriault wins, he will be the only Republican member of the U.S. House from New England, which has been all Democratic since Poliquin’s defeat. The only Republican U.S. senator from New England is Maine’s Susan Collins, who is up for reelection in 2026.