As the counting continued of the 90,000 previously uncounted votes in Alaska today (a full third of the total votes cast had remained untabulated), Democratic Anchorage mayor Mark Begich has now taken a three vote lead over the convicted Republican felon Sen. Ted Stevens who had previously led by some 3,200 votes.
The latest vote tally from the Alaska Division of Elections shows Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, leading Stevens with 125,019 votes to 125,016. If Begich prevails he would be the first Democrat in Alaska elected to the Senate since the 1970s.
As predicted, the previously-uncounted early and absentee ballots were likely to favor the Democrat. Looks like they have. RAW STORY has MSNBC’s video coverage here…
Three U.S. Senate seats remain up for grabs still, in Alaska, Minnesota, and Georgia. Should all three go to the Democrats — and at least two of them, AK and MN, are looking increasingly likely — they would have the 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the next Congress (as long as you include Joe Lieberman) that we first discussed last week.
UPDATE 11/13/08, 10:10am PT: We’re playing catchup on the numbers this morning, but as of late last night, Nate Silver reports at FiveThirtyEight.com, Begitch had opened up an 814 vote lead over Stevens with the remaining, uncounted ballots largely from Dem districts. Details…
More votes to be counted tomorrow and possibly Friday.
As we’ve pointed out and has been pointed out elsewhere, the remaining votes come from Begich-friendly districts. Mark Begich is now an overwhelming favorite to win the Alaska Senate seat.
Previously related at The BRAD BLOG…
• 11/6/08: “SOMETHING SMELLS VERY FISHY IN ALASKA”
• 11/6/08: “FILIBUSTER-PROOF DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY BEGINS TO LINE UP IN U.S. SENATE”
• 11/9/08: “Alaska Stinks & Minnesota’s on Edge, So Here’s What Parties and Citizens Can Do to Try and Ensure Election Results with Integrity There and Elsewhere”
• 11/10/08: “Alaska Update: Thousands of Ballots ‘Found’, One-Third Remain Uncounted in the State’s Still-Fishy ’08 Election”
• 11/11/08: “Alaska’s New Numbers: Still Very Stinky”
I’d take 59 Senate seats thank you…leave J the lie-berrrrrrr-man out of it. Not only elephants have a long memory!
McCain’s support of Chamblis of Georgia is a slap in the face of all veterans.
McCain has lost all respect and gets more pathetic every passing day.
I urge veteran groups to speak out against Senator Saxby Chambliss; this is the time for setting the record straight for the insulting veterans in his last campaign.
Update 11/12/08 – Convicted GOP Rep. Ted Stevens (r) Trails over 800 votes in Senate Race
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIFF00DjwVw_yFN4MkHDk3-mC9bQD94DRR780
Watch this video at the bottom of the page when some woman mentions Judith Miller to the guy at the NYTimes…he-larry-us
Link
Begich takes an 814 vote (0.29%) lead with 35,000 votes left to count in Democratic strongholds.
He needs to pass 0.5% in order to avoid an automatic recount…. and it looks like he will.
Senator-Elect Begich will be the 56th democratic senator.
(VT Independent Senator Sanders is counted towards a filibuster-proof majority but he is not a Democrat.)
Franken in MN looks to quite likely win and be #57.
Martin in GA, however, is not so likely to beat Chambliss in arguably the first state to unilaterally use and abuse touch screen voting machines in the US.
GA and AK do not pass the smell test and appear to be the 2000 FL or 2004 OH of 2008 elections.
Never mind any chance at real voting reform. As I expected, the “e-voting or no voting!” crowd are seizing the upper hand in the Obama administration.
Listen to the wording of this poll “question”… no room is left for anything other than e-voting, and in the comments equal amounts of ignorance and “open-source solves all” idiocy by people already inclined to just lap it up and spew it out in turn.
http://obamacto.uservoice.com/pages/general/suggestions/68758
Wow… between sanction of Bush’s unlimited surveillance laws and support easily-corrupted elections… just what was it again that Obama was supposed to change?
The Minnesota count should be an interesting legal manuever. Georgia will be a case study in dirty politics.
60 isn’t some magic number that will ensure a “filibuster-proof” majority. Democrats are a herd of cats, and Joe-4-Joe isn’t a Democrat. Don’t expect them to stick together, they’ll need Republican support.
Zapkitty, what is that link? Does CTO mean Computer Technology Office? Is it an Obama generated site?
Thx.
Chief Technology Officer, and, no, it’s not an Obama site.
Thank you for clarification, 99 🙂
How is it possible that a convicted felon (seven counts of lying) is even holding a security clearance or accessing government computers, or standing on the Senate floor voting, let alone being on a ballot in the first place?
Failure of Elections system.
Failure of Justice system.
Failure of Secret Service / FBI.
Failure of DOJ / Pentagon.
Roll this man up with his friggin bedroll, into a jail cell already. Have him pick up his Senate Office property from the evidence / property window at the police department!
He had a trial. Come on already! We don’t have time or money for this nonsense.
Isn’t this the point at which the Supreme Court is supposed to step in, stop the vote count, and declare the Republican candidate the winner no matter what the actual ballots say?
Bet Stevens wishes his daddy would buy him an election, the way Dubya’s did.
… Agent 99 said…
I haz been had? Don’t needz to metaphorically eviscerate Retrograde again? I iz relieved. I go teach obamacto’s faqs of voting life.
Yipes, Zap, I dint realize you’d been had… reading too fast. I know you will do a first rate job of tuning ’em up over there, and thank you for that!
If he is to lose, it is only fair that Sen. Stevens be remembered for his important contribution to our understanding of modern technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8
Wilburrr… ~ E voting should go the way of the dirigible…
just erasing my name-email from your comments box
Sorry, if this isn’t the correct place…I was very disheartened when I contacted both senators, 1 responded, by not answering my question at all about election reform in paper ballots and oversight of the counters. The other senator didn’t answer at all, of course he was recently fined $90K for some infraction during his campaign, so he is probably otherwise distracted. It probably will take a petition to get election reform.
Brad, are you aware of the breaking news in Governor Siegelman’s case? This is going straight to the White House!
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1858991,00.html
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-whistleblower-emerges-in-siegelman.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-14/will-the-tables-be-turned-on-the-siegelman-prosecutors/1/
.. Carol in St. Paul said…
Why shouldn’t it?… it came from the White House. And nothing will be done about the leaders at the top who are responsible, in the interests of “healing the nation”… and then they’ll come back to do it again… and again… and again… but the U.S. will allowed to “heal” between each gang rape so it’s all ok dontcha know…
I think it’s up to over 1,000 for Begich, looks more and more like sen. ted stevens will be leaving office, one way or another!