At 3:45 local time, Alaska published (elect.alaska.net) revised vote totals showing Begich ahead by (wait for it) 3 votes. That's after counting about half the outsanding ballots. This morning, Stevens had a 3200 vote lead. Assuming Begich continues to gain votes during the rest of the counting of absentee ballots, we may be able to say Senator Begich - Democrat of Alaska. That would make it 57-1-40 in the senate with 2 races outsdanding.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
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As the end of Wed. 11/12, Begich's lead is now 814 votes. The site fivethirtyeight.com believes nearly all remaining ballots are in Begich-friendly districts, so they are (almost) calling it for Begich. We should know in a couple of days, I think.
The Alaska Elections division stated it would probably have all or almost all of the votes by Friday (tomorrow). This looks like a Democratic pickup!
Minnesota is looking better for Franken. Apparently Hennepin county (Minneapolis) is a major provider of the remaining votes. We may not know the outcome for a while, however, as a manual recount of all state ballots is needed and they may take up to 30 days to complete it.
Georgia still feels like Chambliss country to me. Without Obama on the ticket and given the lower turnout typical in non-general elections, this looks like a GOP keeper seat.
So I am guessing we will have a Senate of 58-1-41. Assuming Lieberman doesn't filibuster with the GOP, all we need is to keep the Dems in line and persuade one moderate Republican not to filibuster. We're running out of moderate Republicans, of course, but there's still Collins, Snowe, Specter, and (maybe) Voinovich. On some issues, McCain might not go with the right-wing flow (no more need to toady to them). So we've got a fighting chance on many issues.
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