Great news. After the Alaska Division of Elections counted the remaining 25,000 absentee and questioned votes, Don Young’s lead is at 129 votes, down from 151.
With the lead shrinking a bit, it looks like we’re headed to recount territory, but Young is holding on. This is solid news for Ethan Berkowitz, as Palin and Young’s bitter relationship likely won’t bring the longtime incumbent many coattails.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/sto…
Young’s lead over Parnell down to 129 votes
Posted: Sep 5, 2008 09:22 PM EDT
by Jason Lamb
Friday, Sept. 5, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — After counting absentee and questioned ballots Friday the Alaska Division of Elections released new numbers in the airtight Republican primary race between incumbent Congressman Don young and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell for Alaska’s U.S. House seat.
Young now leads Parnell by a mere 129 votes.
There were 85,000 votes cast in the race leading up to today’s adjusted tallies.
Elections workers began counting the questioned and absentee ballots Friday morning at the Anchorage office of the Division of Elections.
The most recently counted ballots were checked to ensure they were postmarked correctly. Absentee ballots had to be postmarked by the Aug. 26 primary election day.
Elections officials also made sure that ballots were cast by registered Alaska voters.
Parnell released a statement earlier Friday, saying, “We understand that over 25,000 ballots were to be counted today. Given that the current difference in votes is so small, anything can happen and we remain cautiously optimistic about the results.”
Despite Friday’s updated results, though, the race is still not over.
Elections officials still must count a few areas that ran out of ballots on primary election day, totaling about 250 votes.
Absentee ballots cast overseas will not be counted until next week.
But Young should win. The margin is a bit too large to change at this point…