'It's not over yet:' Nail-biter Pennsylvania special election heads into 2nd day

[Rhiannon12866]

Source: CNN

(CNN) Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone are locked in a neck and neck battle to decide who will represent Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District.

After a long night of drama, the race is still too close to call. Lamb holds a slight lead over Saccone with 100% of the Election Day vote tallied, but absentee and provisional ballots are still being counted. It would be an significant uphill climb for Saccone to overtake Lamb.

Lamb claimed victory in a speech to his supporters Tuesday night.

"It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it," he said. "You did it."

Saccone, however, said he isn't giving up.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/politics/pennsylvania-special-election-lamb-saccone/index.html

[pnwmom]

1. MSNBC says Lamb's the apparent winner.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210354725

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I watched Steve Kornacki all night - and NBC still wouldn't declare a winner

Even after Conor Lamb's victory speech.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Ah ha! It just finally came on the screen!

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I listened to him on my SiriusXM until about 2:30

...and then finally turned it off since they said they still had some absentees that wouldn't be counted until this morning.

What cracked me up was when they switched to Conor's speech and Brian Williams said something like - "he'll probably do a thanks for coming go home and get some rest speech like Saccone"... But when Conor started talking, I'm like, oh no - that is a victory speech!!! And about 5 minutes in, Brian had to interrupt to mumble something about his declaring victory not being official.

[TEB]

4. I know

The boog the chocolate lab and me were hopeful even though we do not live in the 18 th. Boog is still trying to figure out why a lamb is racing. Ok man whatever just rub my ears we will cuddle on the love seat.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I really felt for Steve Kornacki - he stayed up all night!

But it was interesting to watch the live coverage for so long - Jonathan Alter was on!

And please give the boog a pat for me...

[TEB]

7. I did one better for you

A boog belly rub they called it for lamb. My wife loves Steve kornacki and his boards.

[nuxvomica]

6. One thing that is over

Republicans' confidence that Trump's base can deliver electoral victories. He has lost that hold over them.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

9. Not sure he's ever had it.

[titaniumsalute]

10. He had it on November 8th 2016

[Rhiannon12866]

12. There are no Electoral Colleges in Congressional races

[titaniumsalute]

13. No of course not

I think the point was that Trump had a group of red meat supporters at one point that is diminishing. Unless I interpreted it wrong.

[Rhiannon12866]

16. But that was the only factor responsible for the victory he keeps claiming

He may have fervent supporters, but they're still in the minority and getting fewer by the day - as he reveals his true agenda to voters like those in Pennsylvania and, as the previous poster said, they no longer see him as a "winner." You have it exactly right , too.

[paleotn]

11. The Rethug can't make up the difference

with roughly 1,300 absentee ballots left. The inevitable recount may be a different matter, but it appears Lamb squeaked this one out in a heavily Rethug district. Sends a strong message to Rethugs everywhere. Beware Nov. 2018.

[Vinca]

14. How can you be so sure? The difference is far less than 1,300.

Guess the hope is the absentee ballots are from motivated Dems.

[TranssexualKaren]

17. No group of voters.....

Is going to give Saccone the 90% he would need to win.
It simple isn’t going to happen.

[brush]

23. Lamb will get some of those votes, as will the repug who first has to make up the 500 some votes...

he's behind then take most of the rest.

There's not much chance of that. Of course there's always the cheat factor with repugs, but since this election is so closely watched, nationally even, I don't think they can get away with cheating in this one.

Update: I just read another report that all the absentee ballots are counted and Lamb has a 672 vote lead. There are a few military ballots left to count but they total less than 100 so we can relax.

LAMB IS THE WINNER.

[unc70]

20. Only about 200 absentee ballots outstanding

Only Green County left. The third county was reported around 5am with a small majority for Lamb.

[beachbum bob]

15. final count of absentee ballots and a recount for sure, will be a couple weeks before this

is over. Results should not change

[Igel]

19. First they'll have the official canvas.

These are still early results.

After the official canvas, certification and then any recount.

Results shouldn't change; but the official canvas sometimes turns up mistakes and the results do change.

While mistakes with machine-counted voting tend to be double entry or reversed numbers in a spreadsheet, when there are paper ballots the mistakes are both more frequent and less noticeable.

[ancianita]

18. While The People won this battle, remember that in the Koch war of dark money vs. the people,

Kochistas move on with their long game.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

22. If only we could vote ALEC and some others out of existence.

ALEC, Faux News, Heritage Foundation, etc.

[IronLionZion]

21. It's great to see many Trump voters have rejected the dark side

hopefully 2016 was a fluke that won't be repeated any time soon. There are important lessons in here for all of us.