Alaska Senatorial Election

I'm still not a credible writer, but I simply had to come back to post this: As of tonight, the Alaska Senatorial election between Ted Stevens and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich is separated by three votes, in favor of Begich. Tres. Trois. Drei. No extra zeroes.

The Alaska voting results are puzzling almost everyone. First, the turnout "appears" to have been about 3/4 of the turnout in 2004. Nobody can figure that out. Second, the election night totals were less than 3/4 of the real totals; something like 90,000 absentee, early and contested ballots remained outstanding. Some of those were counted today, and results released, which is where this three-vote margin came from.

We are fast on our way to becoming 2008's Florida.

Oh, by the way, me, my wife and my daughter, the three of us, all voted for Begich. So, next time you think your vote doesn't count . . .

That is all. I go back to being an utter failure as a writer now.

caw

We in Alaska don't need no steeeenkeeeeng runoff. The dude with the most votes wins. And IF it winds up a tie, believe it or not, it's a coin-flip. Seriously. That happened in a state legislative race a couple of years ago. Wouldn't that be fun, though?

caw

As of tonight, the margin is up to 871 votes in favor of Begich, and the geography of the still-outstanding ballots favors him pretty heavily. If the final margin winds up 1500+, it exceeds the margin necessary to provoke an automatic recount. In that event, the losing candidate would need to go to court to force a recount. If it's Ted Stevens, expect the biggest sore-loser tantrum in the history of the U.S. Even Stevens' own pollster now thinks he's a dead duck in this one.

But, not to worry. We Alaskers still managed to re-elect a 19-term Congressman (Don Young) under severe suspicion of political hanky-panky, as yet undisclosed. Stay tuned.

caw

Tonight's update on the continuing melodrama of the Alaska Senatorial Election:

Begich now leads Stevens by 1,022 votes. The remaining regions whose votes are yet to be counted tend strongly to favor Begich.

caw

Update: Today is the final day of counting votes in the Alaska election. As of mid-afternoon, Democrat Mark Begich now leads Incumbent Felonious Senator Ted Stevens by 2,374 votes, with about 8,000 remaining to be tallied. If that lead holds (and it has increased steadily all day, as predicted), it would easily surpass the margin needed to avoid an automatic recount. Looks like the Senate Republicans won't have to bite the bullet on expelling Uncle Ted; the voters seem to have done it.

caw

Al Franken, should he lose, won't have anything like the tantrum Uncle Ted will have. Trust me on this. As of tonight, he remains in denial.

As for Alaska booting "his sorry ass", remember that Ted won the Republican primary against two challengers by a huge margin, getting some 60% of the vote. Apparently some of them changed their minds after that. But they had the opportunity to nominate a candidate who would probably have won, given that this state has essentially a 2-1 Republican registration advantage. Much like GWB, at the end, Ted Stevens has damaged his own party more than anybody else.

And, yes, because I know you'll say it, Robs, Democrats have a few of those they need to jettison, too (Kennedy, Byrd, Reid come quickly to mind). Kentucky Republicans are still clinging to Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, too, probably the two most dreadful Senators in tandem that any state can currently boast.

By the way, as an aside, I must gloat. My Senatorial predictions from about a month ago are now 33 for 33 (corrected typo), the two unknowns being Saxby Chambliss in Georgia and Norm Coleman in Minnesota, both of whom I predicted would win. I still think Chambliss will win his runoff; Minnesota is about as tossuppy as anything can get.

caw

caw

Update: It took him a full day to get his mind around the reality and the math (a 3724-vote deficit, with 2500 votes remaining to be counted), but this afternoon Ted Stevens "conceded" the Senatorial race to Mark Begich.

caw