Here are the winners of the 2022 Rhode Map election contest

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The candidates have had their fun. Now it’s time to announce the real winners of the 2022 Rhode Island elections.

We received more than 300 entries for the Rhode Map Pick ‘Em contest, which asked you to choose the results of 87 different races, including all the federal, statewide, and general election matchups. We also asked you to take a guess on turnout and the approval numbers for the statewide bond questions.

One winner has emerged, with no tiebreaker necessary.

With a remarkable 83 out of 87 correct picks, Jameson Plume of Providence is your 2022 Rhode Map Contest winner. Plume and the winner of our September primary contest, Gina Catalano, are getting $100 gift cards to Frog and Toad just in time for the holidays.

Plume won the contest by one point, and it’s because he successfully guessed that turnout in the governor’s race would be between 350,000 and 359,000. As of this morning, the turnout was 352,915. (If the number grows into the 360,000 range, we’ll consider appeals.)

We have a six-way tie for second place, with 82 right guesses out of 87.

The ties include Steph Machado from Channel 12, former National Education Association Rhode Island executive director Robert Walsh, current NEA assistant executive director Alex Lucini, father and son duo Guy and Brad Dufault (separate entries), and Robert Coderre.

Unless there’s a dramatic change in the voting turnout in the governor’s race, Brad Dufault technically wins second place because his prediction of 349,579 voters is closest to the actual number.

By the powers vested in me, I hereby declare all of them second-place finishers, and will award them a Rhode Map tote bag and a meatball sub from Sandwich Hut, on me.

Here are a few other fun tidbits:

⚓ As you might expect, turnout was the most difficult thing to predict. Roughly 15 percent of readers thought that between 350,000 and 359,000 would vote in the governor’s race.

⚓ The average score of all entrants was 64.63 out of 87.

⚓ The lowest score was 36, but we aren’t going to Rhode Shame that person.

⚓ More than 90 percent of readers correctly picked Governor Dan McKee to defeat Ashley Kalus, and 62 percent correctly picked Seth Magaziner to beat Allan Fung in the 2nd Congressional District.

⚓ The individual race that most readers got wrong was Senate District 29, where 62 percent picked Democrat Jennifer Rourke over Republican winner Anthony DeLuca.

⚓ The major race that almost every single person got right: 98.9 percent of readers picked US Representative David Cicilline to win reelection. If you print out your score and present it to him at Clementine, his new bar in Providence, he will buy you a glass of water.

Between the primary and the general election contests, we received close to 900 entries. Thank you to everyone who took the time to play. Most importantly, thank you for reading.

This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, data about the coronavirus in the state, and more. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.