Three Senate Races Still Unresolved

As of today, there are still three Senate races that are undecided.

The most surprising undecided race, to me at least, in the Alaska Senate seat. For a while, it looked like Ted Stevens was going to pull it off. Now, however, Mark Begich is leading by a slim, but growing margin. According to Alaska's Secretary of State's Division of Elections, Begich has 138959 votes and Stevens has 137937. As of yesterday, Begich was up by 1022. Counting will resume on Tuesday, and it seems that the precincts which have not been counted are likely to go for Begich. Hopefully, we will know one way or the other then.

In Minnesota, a recount is looking inevitable. Norm Coleman, with 1211565 votes, holds a 206 vote lead over Al Franken, who has 1211359, according to Minnesota's Secretary of State. For right now, Coleman and his supporters are claiming victory, but, with the number of contested votes that are likely to be re-examined, things could change. Unfortunately, this one will probably not have a final result until the middle of December.

Georgia's race between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin is headed for a run-off. Out of 3,752,579 votes in the general election, Chambliss got 1,867,090, Martin got 1,757,419, the Libertarian candidate got 128,002, and write-in candidates got a whopping 68. Since neither Chambliss nor Martin got a majority of the vote, Georgia voters will have to try it again on December 2. Chambliss beat Martin by 109,671 votes in the general election. Hypothetically, if everyone who voted in the general election came out for the run-off, and almost all of the third-party voters voted this time for Jim Martin, he would pull it off. However, I think turnout will be significantly lower for this election, and I'm afraid that many of those who show up will be the Chambliss faithful. Obama gave a lot of down-ballot races a huge boost, so if Obama voters don't show up for Martin, I don't think he has much of a chance. We shall see, however. Check out Jim Martin's official site for ways to help.

If the Democrats take all three of these seats, we will reach the magic number of 60. With wins by Mark Udall in Colorado, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Jeff Merkley in Oregon, Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, Mark Warner in Virginia, and Tom Udall in New Mexico, the Democrats hold 57 seats, counting Lieberman, which is another story in itself. Depending on how these races turn out, and how the Lieberman issue is dealt with, the Democrats may still be looking at a 60- seat majority when the new Senate comes to order.