AUGUSTA, Maine — In a key congressional race in Maine, the state’s voting system is being used this week to determine the winner, but that won’t be the end. The trailing candidate has called for a full recount that will not begin until more than 12,000 votes have been reallocated to determine the majority.

Election workers will try to complete both tasks quickly enough to ensure the results are certified and sent to the governor by Maine’s Nov. 25 deadline, although state law grants an exception for recounts.

Why so much attention on this race?

The contest between Democratic Rep. Jared Golden and Republican challenger Austin Theriault in Maine’s 2nd congressional district is one of a dwindling number of uncalled races that will determine which party controls the U.S. House.

The race is between a retired Navy veteran who sometimes outscores his fellow Democrats and a race car driver who espouses conservative values ​​but has shaped himself as a potential unifier in Congress.

The race attracted a lot of attention and money, more than $30 million, a large amount for a rural congressional district.

There are less than 20 races left to call to determine control of the House on Monday, after Democrat April McClain Delaney won a district in Maryland and Republican David Schweikert was re-elected in Arizona on Sunday.

What is ranked choice voting?

Ranked-choice voting, adopted by Maine voters in 2016, allows each voter to rank their smaller choices.

If no candidate wins a majority of the first-place votes, then other rounds of tabulation begin, reallocating the lower choices of last-place backers until a candidate holds a majority.

Golden is familiar with the process. It took an extra round to declare him the winner when he unseated Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in 2018 and again in a rematch in 2022. The first time, Poliquin had the most first-place votes, but Golden out with a majority after the second. options have been added. Golden had the most first-place votes in their rematch and came out on top again.

What are the next steps?

Golden claimed to have won the vote outright after some media organizations declared him the winner, but the Secretary of State then announced that the ranked-choice process was necessary because neither candidate exceeded 50% for a first-round victory.

All ballots were then transported from locations in the 2nd Congressional District to a building in Augusta that houses the Maine Emergency Management Agency and the Maine Department of Safety.

Starting Tuesday, poll workers will begin scanning the thousands of individual ballots into a computer. Once completed, ranked tabulation takes just a few seconds with a flick of the computer keyboard. Officials hope to have it completed by the end of the week.

The entire procedure is open to the public. It will be streamed live on the Secretary of State’s YouTube page.

But the process does not end there. Before the ranked election process was announced, Theriault requested a recount that would likely take more than a week.

How close is the race?

The Associated Press has not declared a winner. Both candidates received just under 49 percent of the first-choice vote, with Golden ahead by about 2,000 votes, according to figures released by the secretary of state.

It’s so close it could come down to the second choice of voters who supported write-in candidate, retiree Diana Merenda, who garnered 400 votes and more than 12,000 blank ballots. The ranked picks table will take into account whether any of those spaces included a second or third pick despite not having a first-place pick.

Any ballots that are truly blank – with no elected candidates – will not be counted. Ballots with undeclared write-in candidates will also not be considered.