AUGUSTA (AP) – A review of three disputed elections was opened Monday by the newly constituted Elections Committee of the Maine House of Representatives.

The three unresolved races were among 15 legislative contests that underwent recounts last month. Parties to the disputes failed to agree on settling outstanding issues, leaving it to the new House to make final determinations.

In District 139 voting in Lyman and Waterboro, Democrat Michael McAlevey of Waterboro came out of Election Night with a 13-vote lead over Republican Lawrence Jacobsen of Waterboro. The subsequent recount put Jacobsen ahead, 2,418-2,412, with 13 disputed ballots, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Election Night counting gave Republican Jayne Crosby Giles of Belfast a 13-vote lead over Democrat Walter Ash of Belfast in District 43, which includes Belfast, Belmont and Northport. According to the secretary of state’s office, a recount shifted the advantage to Ash, 2,557-2,552, with 30 disputed ballots and eight ballots that were challenged by local election officials.

In District 42, which includes Brooks, Jackson, Monroe, Swanville, Waldo and Winterport, Republican Jeff Kaelin of Winterport had an Election Night lead of six votes over Democrat Joseph Brooks of Winterport. When the recount ended inconclusively, according to the secretary of state’s office, Kaelin led, 2,278-2,274, with 26 disputed ballots and 19 challenged ballots.

House Elections Committee Chairwoman Janet Mills, D-Farmington, presided at the panel’s organizational meeting Monday and suggested that parties in the three disputes would likely help to “focus” the questions facing the committee so that members would probably not have to “reinvent the wheel” in conducting their review.

Mills set two more committee sessions for next week.

Other members of the House Elections Committee include Democrats Stan Gerzofsky of Brunswick, Patricia Blanchette of Bangor and William Smith of Van Buren and Republicans Joshua Tardy of Newport, who is the assistant Republican floor leader, Roger Sherman of Hodgdon, David Ott of York and Kevin Glynn of South Portland.

Smith and Sherman participated in Monday’s committee session, which took place at the State House, by telephone.

Creation of the committee was one of the first orders of business for the House speaker of the new Legislature, Democrat John Richardson of Brunswick.

Election Night tallies gave Democrats a bare majority of 76 in the 151-member House, with Republicans taking 73 seats. One seat is held by a Green Independent and one by a lawmaker not enrolled in any party.

The Maine Senate, following one recount that affirmed the Election Night outcome in a Bangor-area seat, has an 18-17 Democratic majority.

The final Senate recount tally was 9,636 for Democrat Joseph Perry, who served in the House from Bangor, and 9,356 for Republican Tom Sawyer, who was seeking re-election to the Senate from Bangor, giving Perry an edge of 280 votes. Perry came away on Election Night as the apparent winner by 298 votes.

The full House and Senate will not reconvene until Jan. 4 but another legislative panel has already been set to work.

The Joint Select Committee on Property Tax Reform is scheduled to hold an organizational meeting at the State House on Tuesday.

The agenda includes an executive branch briefing on Gov. John Baldacci’s new tax relief proposal, which includes a call for a constitutional amendment on homestead valuation.