AUBURN — Eric Samson, a longtime Androscoggin County worker who served as a corrections officer and patrol deputy, will likely serve as sheriff.

Late Tuesday, 96 percent of the county’s votes were counted. Only Durham numbers were unavailable.

Samson, 43, of Auburn, won 44 percent of the vote in a three-way race for the job, defeating Republican Tim Lajoie of Lewiston and independent Raymond Lafrance of Poland.

Lajoie, a corrections corporal at the Androscoggin County Jail, took second place with 37 percent of the vote. Lafrance, the patrol captain at the county, took third place with 18 percent.

“I look forward to the opportunity to be sheriff,” Samson said late Tuesday. “I’m proud of what we can do. We’ll be able to move stuff forward. We all have a sense of pride.”

On Wednesday, he plans begin working on the 2015 Sheriff’s Department budget and ease into the role with the help of Sheriff Guy Desjardins.

It’s a role Samson has sought for years.

In 2006, Samson helped Guy Desjardins unseat Sheriff Ronald Gagnon for the job, campaigning as Desjardins’ choice as chief deputy. Four years later, Samson tried and failed to unseat Desjardins in the Democratic primary.

However, when Desjardins decided not to run for re-election this year, the seat went up for grabs.

Samson went to work.

The former Auburn city councilor printed up his signs, attended backyard parties and put his face on Lewiston-Auburn buses.

“I’ve done as much as I can do,” he said. “It’s been a tough year, though.”

In the spring, his father died. Paul Samson was a mentor. He was a veteran Lewiston police officer and a longtime member of the Lewiston City Council.

And on Friday night, Samson retired from his post at the county. It was planned for months.

“I’m all in or I’m all out,” he said during the campaign.

Samson already named his appointee for chief deputy, former Androscoggin County Detective William Gagne. He also plans to work alongside Lafrance.

“I work with leaders,” Samson said.

The sheriff-elect started with the department in 1991 as a reserve corrections officer and began full-time work in the jail two years later. He moved up the ranks to become a sergeant and served as the facility’s programs officer, often overseeing projects like the alternative sentencing initiative that puts people convicted of operating under the influence to work. Inmates have cleaned up parks, made minor renovations to out-of-session schools and performed other work for charities and municipal governments throughout the county.

Samson was working in that role when Desjardins appointed him as chief deputy, something that never quite worked. County commissioners and Desjardins fought over the deputy’s pay. After two stints as the department’s chief deputy, Samson stepped down. Since then, he has moved into the patrol division, graduating from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and serving as a patrol deputy.

Lafrance, who served as the patrol captain for 28 years, campaigned as the seasoned choice. He favored the continued work with the state on the jail and tight control of budgets.

Lajoie ran a campaign in hopes of restructuring the Sheriff’s Department to be more inclusive, encouraging more ideas from its rank-and-file corrections officers, patrol deputies and dispatchers, he said. He wanted to wrestle control of the jail from the state.

dhartill@sunjournal.com