Ranked-Choice Voting Delivers Democrats A House Seat

Democrat Jared Golden, left, greets supporters as they wait for elections results on Nov. 6, 2018, in Lewiston, Maine. Golden was declared the winner on Thursday due to the state’s new ranked-choice voting system

Joel Page / AP

Updated at 2:06 p.m. ET

A House Republican who represents the northern part of Maine became the latest incumbent to be unseated as the Democrats’ blue wave continues more than a week after Election Day.

Democrat Jared Golden was declared the winner Thursday in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District after trailing Rep. Bruce Poliquin in the initial tally of votes. But Golden was declared the winner thanks to Maine’s new ranked-choice system of voting, which allows voters to rank candidates in their order of preference and to transfer their votes if no candidate gets more than 50 percent.