Friday, April 10, 2009

Murphy Is Back On Top!

Damn this is a nail biter! Jim Tedisco and Scott Murphy have gone back in forth in the vote totals, but now that the absentee ballot numbers are rolling in Murphy is slowly but surely increasing his lead. Of course, it is still close and anything can happen, so this is a race that has to be carefully watched.

From TPM:

The official state results show that Murphy has taken an eight-vote lead as of 4:30 p.m. ET yesterday, as absentee ballots begin to be counted. However, there is some more recent data that shows Murphy's lead is actually somewhat larger at the moment.

Columbia County has provided their latest numbers to TPM, showing Murphy picking up another 15 net votes, on a 99-42 margin, compared to the 55-13 in the state's current tally of absentees from here. In addition, the Albany Times Union reports that Murphy has picked up 26 votes, an 88-62 margin, in Essex County.

So as of right now, Scott Murphy leads by 49 votes -- though there are still plenty of ballots left to count. (Late Update: Murphy's newest lead is 46 votes.)

I'm going out of the country tomorrow morning for a week, so if there's anything I'm going to miss (politically speaking) it'll be watching the results from upstate New York. For everyone else, if you are literally going to start biting your nails, listen to Nate Silver at 538 to calm your nerves.