Last week I wondered why in the hell Alaskans would vote to send a convicted felon back to the United States Senate. Then it was noted that the totals were way off from 2004. Well it turns out that it wasn't a majority of them that checked off Ted Stevens name but only a portion of the votes that Diebold had initially counted. When an additional 90,000-plus ballots were found, the totals magically changed.
From DailyKos:
Sweet. Begich leads.
Stevens (R) 125,016
Begich (D) 125,019About 40,000 votes are in from today's batch of absentee, early, and question ballots to be counted today, so we still have another 12,000 or so votes to go before the day is finished. And remember, the districts that will be counted later this week are all Begich districts. While we need to wait for every vote to be counted, chances are we will win this thing if Begich ends up the day leading.
And right now, it looks like that's what we're going to get.
There are still tens of thousands of ballots to be counted and it all looks good from here for Mark Begich. Let's hope those blue districts live up to their names and ensure a solid margin of victory for the next Senator from the State of Alaska, and a resounding defeat for one of the newest convicted criminals from there as well. Not are things looking good for Begich, but unfortunately not so much for Ethan Berkowitz's challenge against Congressman Don Young. Merely ethically-challenged Young is up by over 15,000 votes or nearly six percent of the totals.
Update: And the lead grows!
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