Sixty Slips Away

Yeah, I fell asleep before the final results were in. Then again, with a recount looming in Minnesota, I have no reason to expect myself to stay awake until December.

Here's where the race stands with 100% of precincts reporting (data from the Minnesota Secretary of State's website):

Norm Coleman - 1,211,627 (42.00%)
Al Franken - 1,210,901 (41.97%)
Dean Barkley -437,308 (15.16%)

With a margin of less than one half of 1%, there will be an automatic recount of the nearly 2.9 million ballots cast. Minnesota's ballots are of the Scantron/bubblesheet variety, so I don't expect the recount to change this outcome.

And here are the other races that were outstanding as of very, very early this morning:

Georgia (96% reporting as of 10:05:25 AM ET )
- Saxby Chambliss (R)* - 1,832,368 (49.9%)
- Jim Martin (D) - 1,717,052 (46.7%)
- Allen Buckley (L) - 125,649 (3.4%)

Buckley is the Libertarian Party's candidate, and he seems to be drawing votes from Chambliss. Either Chambliss or Martin need to win a clear majority to avoid a run-off. The Georgia Secretary of State's website has an "unofficial and incomplete" total.

Oregon (as of 5:53 AM PT)
- Gordon Smith (R) - 474,398 (47.30%)
- Jeff Merkley (D) - 469,920 (46.86%)
- Dave Brownlow (C) - 55,852 (5.57%)

Brownlow is the Constitution Party of Oregon's candidate. I'm assuming he drew votes that would have gone to Smith out in the eastern part of the state, so, as in Georgia, the margin of victory here will likely depend on whether the third party candidate acts as spoiler. The website of Oregon's Secretary of State has an unofficial total.

Alaska (99.32% reporting as of 1:24AM Alaska Time)
- Stevens (R)* - 106,351 (48.06%)
- Begich (D) - 102,998 (46.54%)

These results are from Alaska's Department of Elections's website. What can I say? Alaska is just flat crooked.

*incumbent