Here are the final completely unscientific results on The Maine View Gubernatorial Primary Poll. The Democratic field was neck and neck for a while. Steve Rowe and Rosa Scarcelli battled back and forth for some time once once the Democratic voters came in. In the end Scarcelli beat Rowe 43% to 38%. Libby Mitchell came in third with 15% of the votes.
The Republican contest was between Matt Jacobson and Bruce Poliquin right from the outset. Both candidates contacted supporters on Twitter, as did Rowe and Scarcelli, asking them to participate. Jacobson also sent out emails to supporters asking them to vote. Poliquin pulled out the win for the Republicans grabbing 66% of the vote to Jacobson’s 28%. Peter Mills finished third with 4%.
The Green Party primary ended strangely with Patrick Quinlan, who has done no campaigning what so ever, pulled a win with 53% to Lynne Williams 47%. Clearly people have a sense of humor with this one. Sorry Mr. Quinlan, I just don’t see it happening.
Some disagreed with the tactics used by candidates. I however applaud them. As I said the other day, we should consider this poll for fun practice for the real thing. Seeing how quickly some of the candidates could mobilize there supporters really impressed me. Some people could have exploited the poll, if you deleted your cookies you could vote as many times as you wanted, so let’s take that into consideration when looking at the numbers. I’d like to keep the focus on the use of email and Twitter to reach out to supporters. This and the ongoing Augusta Insider Twitter coverage points to the potential of this technology, when used appropriately, to influence elections.
Thank you again to all the candidates and voters for participating. Hope everyone had a good time with it.
Filed under: Maine 2010 Primary Poll Tagged: | bruce poliquin, gubernatorial election, Libby Mitchell, lynne williams, Matt Jacobson, patrick quinlan, peter mills, Rosa Scarcelli, Steven Rowe
[...] in the poll was Matt Jacobson. This is the second poll (here is the first) that he has come in second, and both times he has had a very respectable showing. This shows to me [...]