Tag Archives: Ron Paul

New Republic Article on Maine 2012

The New Republic has published an article titled “The Mysterious Town That Voted For Ron Paul” based on the Election Atlas Maine statewide township map of the 2012 General Election results for President (it links to this weblog post).  The Atlas has a weblog entry on this very topic published back on June 28, 2013.  The New Republic article expresses some concern on the validity of the result based on the lack of lack of existing modern information about Concord Unorganized Township on the web and the absence of election results from Concord UT in recent elections.  As for the latter concern, there is recent evidence of consistent results reported from Concord UT.  In addition to the three votes cast for President in 2012 from (all write-ins for Ron Paul), there are also three votes cast for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives District 2, State Senate District 26, and State Representative District 88.  Furthermore, while 2012 was the first modern year that Maine published Presidential Election results separately for Concord UT, the Maine 2010 General Election results as published by the Maine Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions also include three votes for Governor from Concord UT (two for Republican Paul LePage and one for Independent Eliot Cutler) as well as three votes each for U.S. Representative, State Senator, and State Representative.  Another mention of Concord UT separately is a voter registration report from November of 2006 that includes five registered voters (four Unenrolled and one Republican).  Earlier reports of election results mention that Concord UT results are included with Solon Township (example: General Election Tabulations November 2, 2004).

Elections Administered by Millinocket

Elections Administered by Millinocket

A number of the gray-shaded towns in the Maine statewide township map have residents, but not governments that administer elections.  Rather, larger surrounding townships administer elections in the unorganized townships and include these votes in their tallies.  One example is that of Millinocket (dark green in map at right), where the town administers elections in Penobscot Unorganized Townships 3 and 4, Long A UT, Cedar Lake UT, T1 R9 WELS UT, and T1 R8 WELS UT (all in light green).  Sometimes, the election results or voter registration figures for these outlying unorganized townships are tallied separately, sometimes they are added to the votes cast within the administering township, and sometimes they are reported as an aggregate separate from the administering township.  Results vary from year to year.

Ron Paul Wins (Concord Unincorporated Township)

Somerset 2012 Presidential Results by Town

Somerset County, ME 2012 Presidential Election Results

Hidden in the 2012 Presidential Election data is a small unincorporated township in Maine that was won by Ron Paul. There were a total of three votes cast – all three were write-in votes for Ron Paul – both Obama and Romney came up empty. The 2012 general election is the first time that the Maine Secretary of State Bureau of Corporations, Elections & Commissions has published presidential election results for Concord Twp. Although not actively running for President in the 2012 General Election, Ron Paul was certified as a declared write-in candidate for President in Maine, allowing his write-in votes to be counted (see 2012 Maine Declared Write-in Candidates).

The image to the right shows the full results by township for Somerset County, ME in the 2012 General Election for President.  Concord Twp is located in Somerset County on the west side of the Kennebec River to the north of Embden Town (colored in dark yellow on the map).   Concord Twp is included with Lexington Twp to form the census “Central Somerset UT”.

In spite of the plethora of low population towns in New England, wins by “third party” candidates are quite rare.  Not since Ross Perot in 1996, has a third party won in any New England town (Perot won three and tied in a fourth in 1996.  Perot won a substantial number of towns in 1992).  Nader tied Al Gore in 2000 in Pinkham’s Grant, NH 3-3.