Latest on Begich/Stevens Alaska Senate race from Begich Finace Director

[Stuart G]

First, for those of you who answered our call for financial help last week - thank you! We've raised more that $44,000 toward our $50,000 goal. It was a lot to ask from those who have already been so generous, but your response was fast, overwhelming, and has allowed us to monitor the statewide early vote and absentee vote count.



There are currently more than 81,000 early, absentee, and questioned ballots going through the validation process. More ballots are arriving each day, so that number will grow a bit. While currently trailing by 3257 votes, we did exceedingly well with the early votes counted so far (61% for Mark, 48% for Stevens), sent a terrific mail piece to every absentee voter, and question ballots in Alaska skew to Democrats. As you can see by going to
http//action.begich.com/electoralmap,
Mark did VERY well statewide and we're confident when the rest of the ballots (30% of the total) are counted, we'll come out on top.

This is a race we are fighting for and intend to win.

The Division of Elections (DOE) plans to count 2/3 of the outstanding ballots on Wednesday and those remaining on Friday. All oversees ballots have to be in by Wednesday, November 19th and the DOE plans to certify the election on Tuesday, November 25. A recount, should one be necessary, would occur after that. We will keep you updated on the status of the race after each step in the process.

Thank you,

John Vezina
Finance Director
Alaskans for Begich
907.297.2575

[LynneSin]

1. crossing my fingers for Beglich

Why anyone would want Stevens knowing he will be jailed is beyond me.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

2. Hopefully

Or else......the Mooseilla Hillbilly will be on her way to Washington.

[liberal N proud]

3. Why weren't the absentee ballots counted already?

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Do you have any idea how much work it is...

to count over 80,000 ballots?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. If it were one person...

[liberal N proud]

7. Other states count the absentee ballots on election day

And many of these were early. They could have started counting before Nov 4th, just not released the numbers until Nov 4.

Something is fishy!

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Nothing is fishy-- see my reply #9 n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

8. The stated reason

is that in 2004 26 people voted early AND on election day, so this time they wanted to cross-check against the signed voter rolls before they count. It seems to me like they could have counted, given us a result, and then double-checked, but apparently they didn't want to take that chance.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. That is the real reason...

in my county the absentee ballots are nomally sent to the ED and saved till the polls close and the names then checked with the books to make sure they didn't come in to vote in person. Only then they are counted with the emergency ballots.

This year, however, we had over 40,000 absentee ballots in the county so they decided to count them at the BoE so poll workers wouldn't be stuck at the polls till 2AM counting and recounting ballots. This means hiring temps to do the counting, and it will take a while.

Aside from increasing the time spent counting and checking, the absentee ballots themselves are secret-- ballots have no identification on them but come in envelopes identifying the voter. At counting time, the ballots are separated from the envelopes and everything is shuffled so no one can know who voted for whom.

So, they can't count and check later.

[Ediacara]

4. Early votes added up to 109%?

I hope he means 61/38....

ON EDIT: If the early trends hold, Begich should be ahead by about 15,000 votes when they're done counting.

[MadBadger]

10. I'm assuming that was 61-38