"My vote doesn’t count!"
posted in News, Politics |Well, bullshit.
Sorry to be so crude, but we’ve got two senate races now that are real squeakers–one right here in Alaska!–and a third that is still undecided.
Right now, Mark Begich is three votes ahead of Ted Stevens, he of the “tubes” description of the Internet. Stevens is being called “convicTed” by liberal voters because of his recent conviction; I can tell you that our neighborhood was filled with “Republican for Mark Begich” signs, so that’s an indicator of some sort. For some reason, Alaska still has not counted some 30,000 votes; they counted 60,000 or so today, all mailed in or provisional ballots. Before this, Stevens was ahead by a few thousand.
In Minnesota, Al Franken and Norm Coleman are doing the do-si-do: first one’s up, then the other, then the other. Right now, Coleman is ahead by 204 votes, well within the required automatic recount that Minnesota law provides when races are closer than a certain margin. The official recount begins next Wednesday, and is expected to last until December.
In Georgia, neither Saxby Chambliss (the Republican) nor Jim Martin has the required 50% plus one (the Libertarian candidate siphoned off the additional votes), and they are looking at a runoff election in December.
If all three Republicans in these races end up losing…then the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. (Whether this is a good thing or not I leave up to my readers to decide. I, personally, do not want the FBPM; I like the checks and balances and negotiations that would be required to court the two independent senators or lure a Republican over.)
Your vote does count. Yes, it does.
(ETA: The difference is now Begich up 814 votes.)
