Nov. 6, 1860: Hannibal Hamlin, a Republican from Bangor, is elected U.S. vice president, serving with Republican President Abraham Lincoln.
Hamlin (1809-1891), a former Democrat who bolted from the party over its pro-slavery stance, was selected for the Republican ticket to provide a regional and partisan balance with Lincoln, who is from Illinois. He serves one term, until March 4, 1865, when the Civil War was nearly over.
About six weeks later, his replacement, Andrew Johnson, becomes president when Lincoln is assassinated.
President Dwight Eisenhower shakes hands with Gov. John H. Reed of Maine at the White House in Washington on Feb. 19, 1960. It was the governor’s first trip to the nation’s capital since he took office some six weeks earlier after the death of Clinton A. Clauson. Associated Press
Nov. 6, 1962: Incumbent Gov. John H. Reed (1921-2012), a Republican, is elected to a four-year term as Maine governor. It is the last time a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Maine wins more than 50 percent of the vote.
Reed, a potato farmer from Fort Fairfield, first became governor on Dec. 30, 1959, when Gov. Clinton Clauson died. As president of the Maine Senate, Reed was first in line to succeed Clauson. Reed then won a special election in 1960 to finish Clauson’s term.
Nov. 6, 2012: Maine, Maryland and Washington become the first states to legalize same-sex marriages by referendum. The “yes” side gets 53 percent of the vote in Maine. The law in Maine takes effect Dec. 29.
The vote reverses the outcome of a referendum held only three years earlier, in 2009, when Maine residents overturned a law passed by the Legislature affirming homosexuals’ right to marry each other.
Nov. 6, 2018: Maine uses ranked-choice voting for the first time in a general election of candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, wins re-election to her seat with more than 50 percent of the vote in the initial tally, so ranked choices play no role in her victory. In the 2nd Congressional District, however, incumbent U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, running for re-election against three challengers, achieves only a 46.3 percent plurality in the first tally.
When votes received by the two candidates who drew the fewest votes are redistributed to the voters’ second and third choices, Democrat Jared Golden comes out on top. Golden becomes the first challenger to defeat an incumbent in the district since 1916.
Poliquin files a lawsuit in federal court, claiming he was the winner; but a judge rejects his claim, as does the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit when Poliquin files an appeal.
With Golden’s election, Republicans are shut out of U.S. House seats everywhere in New England for the 116th Congress.
Joseph Owen is an author, retired newspaper editor and board member of the Kennebec Historical Society. Owen’s book, “This Day in Maine,” can be ordered at islandportpress.com. To get a signed copy use promo code signedbyjoe at checkout. Joe can be contacted at: jowen@mainetoday.com.
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