Juneau Empire: 81,000 Ballots still to be Counted in Alaska

[MadBadger]

The state Elections Division said Friday 81,000 votes remain to be counted, mostly early votes but also absentee and questioned ballots.

That may be enough to swing as many as six state legislative races, and the number of votes is making the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Ted Stevens and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich look increasingly close.

Stevens now leads by 3,257 votes out of 221,713.

Both Begich and House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, issued press releases saying it was too soon to decide their races.

Begich is hoping early votes will trend Democratic and give him a victory.

Numerous legislative races are only a few hundred votes apart, and Kerttula hopes her caucus will pick up more seats.

"We know we've already picked up seats in the House," she said. "If our candidates prevail in the outstanding races it would change the face of the House significantly."

Democrats have not yet announced their leadership, and will not do so until more races have been decided, Kerttula said.

Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, has already claimed victory, however, and announced that he will be the speaker in the next session.

Juneau may play a significant role in boosting Begich's chances. He outpaced other Democrats, including Rep. Andrea Doll in Mendenhall Valley and Barack Obama citywide. And 95 percent of Southeast's 1,066 yet-to-be-counted early ballots were cast in Juneau.

The largest amount of ballots remaining in Southeast are absentees, 15,826, and questioned ballots, 3,864.

The Alaska Democratic Party's Bethany Lesser said the amount of votes remaining to be counted in areas Begich won mean they are still optimistic Begich will win.

Elections Division officials say they expect the next count to be done Wednesday.

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/110908/loc_354024709.shtml

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I certainly hope so.

I also was wondering about those state congressional seats. As it stands now, the Democrats did pick up some, having a 50-50 split in the Senate and being four shy in the House. This in itself is great progress from previous years and shows that Alaska is not nearly so bright red as everyone assumes.

[tnlurker]

3. What is the holdup on counting the votes?

It has been 80,000 voes to count for 5 days now. When do they expect to count those votes?

Do you know Blue?

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I really don't know what the hold-up is.

I know they counted a few early votes already because they were running about 60-40 in favor of Begich. Maybe they're just taking the weekend off? In any event, the election must be certified by November 21, so they'll probably be pretty busy in the coming days.

[Uben]

10. HAven't you heard?

Palin went back to Alaska after the election and found all of the people counting ballots completely out of fashion. She sent them all to Neiman Marcus for new outfits so they can get the count right, and look "smart" while they're doing it!

[No Elephants]

8. Alaska was trending toward Obama until McCain picked Palin.

[Hokie]

2. This really stinks

Alaska still has that many ballots to count 5 days after the election? That is a quarter of the total votes cast. I am sure Palin will have her nose in this before it is over. She probably does already. The woman reeks with corruption and she ignores the rules and laws.

[secondwind]

5. I'm w illing to bet the Dems have election officials up there making sure

everything is on the up-and-up........I don't think there will be any corruption.

I sure hope that Alaskans send Palin a clear message that her term will be up in 2010~!!

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I know Begich has lawyered up,

and my guess is the national folks are here overseeing. I hope so, anyway.

[No Elephants]

9. Lawyered up. I like that. All the Pub dissing of lawyers, but they sure hire them when it is in

their interests to do so, don't they?

Why do Pubs hate people who know the law?

[Blue_In_AK]

11. Begich is the Democrat

He has lawyers standing by to make sure the vote-counting is above-board. I think maybe you misunderstood (or maybe I did).

[marlakay]

4. how many people really think it will get fairly counted

with sarah back there in charge??

[Dems to Win]

12. Alaskans lost so many fingers/toes to frostbite they are now the slowest counters on the planet?

This is ridiculous. Alaskans need to demand a more efficient system be developed for next election.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. I think they're being overly cautious

about checking the early voters against the election day voters because 12 people had senior moments apparently in 2004, and voted early AND on election day. Vote early, vote often. :rofl:

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. Dupe - hiccup

[Blue_In_AK]

16. McCain isn't the issue.

The issue is our representation in Congress.

[asdjrocky]

14. Man, if I've ever seen a state that needs Dems in charge for a while it's Alaska.

[sce56]

18. Well I thought we had it easy but that is about the total uncounted form one Calif County!

Ventura County election officials counted 13,732 more votes Thursday, enough to shed a little more light on the results but not enough to settle the closest races. About 76,000 ballots remain to be counted, Assistant Registrar of Voters Tracy Saucedo said. The final results won't be known for another week or two. The latest count includes all absentee ballots mailed early, all regular votes cast at the polls Tuesday, and a small portion of the thousands of provisional and late absentee ballots handed in Tuesday. Provisional ballots are cast by people whose registration status or proper polling place are in doubt. They must be checked against the voter rolls, so they take longer to count than regular ballots. Absentee ballots are also slow to be counted because signatures on them have to be verified.

In the state senate race that equals if not out spent Congressional races Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson leap-frogged back in front of Republican Tony Strickland on Friday in their nip-and-tuck battle to represent Ventura County's 19th Senate District. Based on additional mail-in ballot results reported by Santa Barbara and Los Angeles County elections officials, Jackson took a 255-vote lead. With 339,259 votes counted, Jackson now leads by 0.075 percent. The lead could swing back to Strickland on Monday as Ventura County — which he carried in Election Day balloting — releases its next update on the 63,065 mail-in ballots that have yet to be counted. Ventura County released no additional results Friday.

[SweetieD]

19. wtf is going on in Alaska? the Justice dept needs to take a look at this. n/t