AUBURN – U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe has never lost an election during her more than three decades in politics, but she wound up a close second in balloting to choose a name for the newest school in the city in which she grew up.

Park Avenue Elementary, with 189 votes, was the winner in Tuesday’s election, in which nearly 650 students and adult residents of Auburn took part. Olympia Snowe Elementary was second, with 175, followed by Brann’s Hill Elementary, with 165 votes, and Ledgewood Elementary, with 115.

The Auburn School Committee was expected to approve the new name for the three-story school that serves 330 pupils from kindergarten through sixth grade.

Snowe, a Republican who launched her political career in Auburn, collected 74 percent of the vote last week in defeating two challengers to win a third term.