30 Percent of Alaskan Votes Still Uncounted and the Minnesota Recount
As Avi so delicately put it this morning, “This is what happens when you buy surplus Russian stuff…”
Nearly 30% of Alaskan ballots have yet to be counted - including absentee and questioned ballots.
Yes, that sounds like a LOT.
Here’s another way of thinking about it: as of yesterday, there were 90,635 freaking votes left to count.
Lefty blogs are tksing because of the large number of late entries and the fact that - despite two high profile congressional races and their governor on the ballot for VP - voter turnout appears lower than 2004.
According to election officials, ballots trickling in late isn’t terribly new. The state is enormous and each ballot must be hand-delivered by moose.
But most elections weren’t hinging on a 3,000-vote lead by a Senatorial felon and a 17,000-vote lead by a representative who is almost certain to be indicted this year.
As to the low vote totals, that’s something I’m sure we can hash out in the courts for years and years.
Speaking of ballot counting and legal action - the Minnesota recount will soon be underway. Republican Norm Coleman’s lead has dropped from 725 votes last week to just 206 yesterday.
538’s been doing the math, and, according to Nate Silver’s most recent projections, Franken might just pull it off (or, hilariously, tie - since Silver has the magic number at 206, which then promptly became the amount of Coleman’s lead.)
By the way: one of my favorite parts of the election cycle was Norm Coleman encouraging Franken to forgo his right to an ‘expensive’ ($90,000) recount with a difference of 0.01% between the candidates.
Coleman said he would conceded if the count had been reversed, a statement somewhat belied by the number of lawyers he’s just hired for the recount.
Sphere: Related Content