With 94% of precincts reporting on the day after the election, theBangor Daily News declared LePage the winner, carrying 38.1% of the votes.[2] Cutler was in second place with 36.7% of the votes (less than 7,500 votes behind LePage), while Mitchell was a distant third with 19%.[2] Moody and Scott had 5% and 1%, respectively.[2] Two days after the election, with 99% of precincts reporting, LePage's lead over Cutler had widened to more than 10,000 votes.[3] This election was the first since1990 that Maine elected a Republican governor.
Donna Dion, formerMayor ofBiddeford.[11][12] Did not appear on the ballot due to lack of petition signatures, but continued her campaign in the primary as awrite-in candidate.[13]
John G. Richardson, former Commissioner of Economic and Community Development and former Speaker of the House.[4][17] Richardson withdrew from the race on April 26 amid allegations that some of his campaign workers had not followed proper procedures for collecting donations to qualify him for Maine Clean Election funding.[18] The primary ballots had already been printed before Richardson withdrew from the race, so Richardson's name appeared on the ballot even though he was no longer a candidate.[19]
Peter Truman (also known as Peter Throumoulos), former state representative and convictedforger.[20] Did not appear on the ballot due to lack of petition signatures.
John Jenkins, former state senator, former mayor of bothAuburn andLewiston, and a 2002 gubernatorial candidate.[56] Jenkins, who won his most recent mayoral campaign by write-in, declared he would run for Governor of Maine if 5,000 people followed hisFacebook fan page[57] within 45 days.
Beverly Cooper-Pete.[58] Did not appear on the ballot due to lack of petition signatures,[51] but continued her campaign as a write-in candidate.[59]
Alex Hammer, business owner and self-published author.[4][60] Did not appear on the ballot due to not meeting the deadline for turning in petition signatures. Hammer attempted to turn in some of the signatures electronically, but the Secretary of State ruled that such methods were not allowed. Hammer filed suit to appear on the ballot in Penobscot County Superior Court on June 28, 2010.[61][62] On September 28, 2010, the judge upheld the Secretary of State's decision.[63]
Samme Bailey.[4][64] Did not appear on the ballot due to lack of petition signatures.[51]
Augustus Edgerton.[4] Did not appear on the ballot due to lack of petition signatures.[51]
Michael Heath, former leader of theChristian Civic League of Maine (now known as the Maine Family Policy Council).[65] Withdrew from the race due to lack of petition signatures.[66]
John Whitcomb.[4] Did not appear on the ballot due to lack of petition signatures.[51]
Lynne Williams, attorney and former state chair of the Maine Green Independent Party.[68][69] On March 15, 2010, Lynne Williams announced her withdrawal from the campaign, citing a lack of clean elections funds and qualifying signatures.[70]
Despite polling in the low teens as late as mid-October, Cutler surged in the final weeks of the campaign to surpass Mitchell and finish second. LePage won with only 37.6% of the vote, the second-lowest percentage for any winning Maine gubernatorial candidate behind independentAngus King's 35.7% in1994. LePage was considered to have benefitted fromvote splitting between the Democrat Mitchell and the Democrat-turned-independent Cutler.[93] Mitchell would ultimately win just 18.8% of the vote, carrying onlyKittery andOgunquit in the extreme south of the state, thePenobscot Indian Island Reservation, and a handful of staunchly Democratic municipalities in northernAroostook County near the Canadian border. Cutler carried many other traditionally Democratic areas of the state, such as theGreater Portland area andMount Desert Island. Mitchell's performance was the worst for any Democratic gubernatorial candidate since1998, when DemocratThomas J. Connolly would win just 12% of the vote in the midst of King's 16-county landslide re-election. This election remains the last time the Democratic nominee failed to carry a single county in a Maine gubernatorial election.
In addition, a number of municipalities and voting precincts finished as exact ties in official results: the municipalities ofBancroft,Dallas Plantation,Gilead,Madrid,Orient,Vanceboro, andWesley, finished as exact ties between LePage and Cutler, while a precinct for voters in unincorporated eastern Aroostook County finished as a tie between Cutler and fellow independent Shawn Moody, with each receiving one vote.
Paul LePage andEliot Cutler would face off again in2014, though Cutler would ultimately garner just 8% of the vote in that election. LePage would win re-election that year with over 48% of the vote, his closest opponent being DemocratMike Michaud, who received 43% of the vote. In 2022, Cutler would be arrested for possession of child pornography, resulting in him serving seven months in jail and being required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.[95][96]
Shawn Moody, who finished the 2010 election with 5% of the vote as an independent, would become a Republican in 2017. He was the Republican nominee for governor in2018, an election he would lose to DemocratJanet Mills.[97]
^"McGowan joins Maine gubernatorial field".Portland Press Herald. Associated Press. 5 January 2010. Archived fromthe original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved5 January 2010.Former state Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan formally announced his candidacy today, making him the seventh Democrat seeking his party's nomination in June.
^Cover, Susan (June 7, 2010)."Governor's Race: Independents can vote Tuesday, but they need to know the rules".Portland Press Herald. RetrievedJune 7, 2010.Democrat John Richardson pulled out in April after the ethics commission found problems with his application for Clean Election funds. But it was too late for the ballots, which had already gone to the printers.
^Wickenheiser, Matt (September 10, 2009)."Man once jailed for forgery seeks state office".Portland Press Herald. Archived fromthe original on July 15, 2012. RetrievedSeptember 10, 2009.A former state representative who was jailed two years ago for forging signatures on petitions for state Clean Election funds has filed papers to run for governor. Peter Truman of Old Orchard Beach, also known as Peter Throumoulos, plans to run as a Democrat.
^Wickenheiser, Matt (September 15, 2010)."Maine gubernatorial candidates put the focus on homeless".Portland Press Herald. RetrievedSeptember 15, 2010.The candidates who attended were Democrat Libby Mitchell and independent Shawn Moody, along with write-in candidates Beverly Cooper-Pete and Ed Braley ...
County results
Municipality results
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