Alaska Republican Senate Race...Miller With Slim Lead But Final Result May Not Be Known For Over A Week

As of 10:20am eastern (which is 6:20 in Alaska) Joe Miller is leading incumbent RINO Lisa Murkowski by just under 2,000 votes with 98% of the vote counted.

Still unaccounted are the absentees.

Most of the precincts that hadn't reported were in rural areas, particularly Western Alaska including the regions around Bethel, Nome and Kotzebue, where paper ballots are counted by hand. Counting was to continue through the night, according to the Division of Elections. There were also some precincts yet to report in the Dillingham-Aleutians region and the university area of Fairbanks. But all those of tend to be Democratic-leaning areas where many independent voters might choose the Democratic primary ballot. Those who are registered Democrats aren't allowed to vote in the Republican primary so can't have a say in the Miller-Murkowski race.

The final results of the race won't be known for over a week. The Alaska Division of Elections said over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested and as of Monday night 7,600 had been returned. The first count of absentees will be next Tuesday and there will be two subsequent counts as the absentee votes trickle in on Sept. 3 and on Sept. 8.

It's hard to imagine why the absentees would break for Murkowski in greater numbers than the in person vote. In fact, given the grassroots enthusiasm level for Miller, it seems his voters would be more likely to go through the process of getting an absentee ballot and following through on it.

The pudding is on hold but it's in the building.

posted by DrewM. at 10:32 AM

| Access Comments