Following Recount, Rodriguez Declared At-Large City Council Winner

CITY NEWS BRIEF

PORTLAND, Maine — Following a recount that began on November 9th at Ocean Gateway, Roberto Rodriguez has been declared the winner of the At-Large City Council race. The declaration of the final result came after both candidates and their teams completed the manual recount of all ballots and resolved their dispute over 37 ballots over which their teams had not agreed the day before. That resolution resulted in two additional votes in favor of Mazer and two additional votes in favor of Rodriguez. The remaining 33 ballots were determined by the candidates to be “exhausted” and therefore did not impact the final tally. Following the candidates’ discussion and resolution of the disputed ballots, Brandon Mazer conceded. In total, Rodriguez received 8,549 votes and Mazer received 8,514.

Successful Challenge by Rodriguez

The race originally ended in a tie following the ranked-choice instant runoff tabulation, which was used because none of the four at-large candidates received more than 50% of the vote. Under the City’s Charter and the rules adopted for how to administer ranked-choice voting, in the case of a tie, “the City Clerk shall determine the winner in public by lot” (a method of making a decision or selection by choosing something, often slips of paper, at random).

City Clerk Katherine Jones and Elections Administrator Paul Riley conducted the drawing of lots in public on the Ganley Plaza outside of City Hall on November 4th. Mazer was declared the winner of the drawing. Rodriguez then requested a recount.  

Three new people will be joining the Portland City Council – Anna Trevorrow (District 1), Victoria Pelletier (District 2), and Rodriguez (At-Large). Inauguration Day is scheduled for Monday, December 6 at 6:00 p.m.