Thursday, November 13, 2008

Landslide

The vote counting in the Senate election between Ted Stevens (R) and Mark Begich (D) in Alaska is getting interesting.

The current count puts Begich ahead of Stevens by three votes — not three percent, but three raw votes, with nearly 50,000 more ballots to be counted.

The remaining ballots will provide us an answer as to whether Alaska is so corrupt that they would re-elect a convicted felon. But the trend so far appears to be in favor of a Begich win.

Late Update: Begich now leads by 814 votes. Things are looking a whole lot better for him right now than they were on Election Night.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, Al Franken (DFL) and Norm Coleman (R) are in the middle of a Florida 2000-style recount.

Minnesota won’t know who won the contested U.S. Senate race until at least mid-December, but now the final arbiters for the recount have been named.

They include a cast of heavy-hitters topped by Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, a former law partner of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, three other high-ranking judges and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a DFLer, who made the selections Wednesday.

The freshly appointed state Canvassing Board will be charged with certifying vote totals Tuesday and, more important, settling differences over disputed ballots once local officials complete their recount.

The resolution of those disputed ballots may decide the winner of the closest Senate contest in the country, although a court challenge may still be in the offing.

It only takes one vote… or 5-4.