Maine certifies Gore carried Pine Tree State

PORTLAND – Maine has quietly certified the results of the presidential election, confirming that Al Gore carried the state and took all four of its electoral votes.

Monday’s certification came with none of the controversy surrounding the vote count in Florida.

In Maine, the vice president beat Texas Gov. George W. Bush by 33,335 votes. Democrat Gore got 319,951 votes, Republican Bush 286,616.

Maine’s four-member electoral college will convene Dec. 18 in the chamber of the Maine House of Representatives to cast its votes for Gore.

Except for Maine and Nebraska, all states are winner-take-all. Whichever candidate wins the most votes in the general election gets all the state’s electoral votes.

In Maine, the winner of each congressional district gets one vote for each district won, and the overall winner gets two at-large votes.

Because most voters in each district voted for the Democratic candidate, all of Maine’s electors will be Democrats.

The four – Christopher Babbidge of Kennebunk, Joseph Mayo of Augusta, Dottie Melanson of Falmouth and William Phillips of Bangor – were elected by party members during the state Democratic convention.

They will receive presidential ballots containing one name: Gore’s.

The electors can scratch out Gore’s name, and U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s on the vice presidential ballot, but they all promised not to.

After the vote, the electors will sign six certificates of vote. One will go to the president of the U.S. Senate, two to the archivist of the United States, two to the Maine secretary of state and one to the chief judge of the District of Maine.