"Uncle Ted" is dead: Begich defeats Stevens in Alaska Senate race

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It's been two weeks since Election Day, but at long last Republican incumbent/felon Ted has fallen to Democratic challenger Mark Begich.

By the end of last week, Begich's lead was up to over a thousand.

With all votes now counted except for about 2,500 special absentee ballots -- from Alaskans living overseas and from remote parts of the state -- his lead has widened to an insurmountable 3,724.

(There may be a recount next month, but the margin is quite wide, and, "since the state moved to mostly machine counting, recent Alaska recounts have resulted in little change in the final tally.")

And so Begich has claimed victory.

And we applaud.

Begich pulls ahead in Alaska Senate count

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Democratic challenger Mark Begich's lead over Republican incumbent/felon Ted Stevens was 814 on Thursday. It's now 1,022, with "about 24,000 ballots left to be counted, coming from Anchorage, Southeast Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula," according to the Anchorage Daily News. "The state will tally them all Tuesday."

It was expected that Stevens would actually narrow the gap somewhat yesterday, with many votes counted from "northern and western Alaska, the Mat-Su and the Fairbanks region, including the North Pole area, where Stevens is hugely popular." Instead, Begich pulled ahead by more than 200 votes.

There may yet be a recount next month, but, as of right now, with many votes still to be counted from Begich's Anchorage and southeast Alaska strongholds, the Stevens campaign seems to have read the writing on the wall:

The Stevens campaign has long gone silent, and once again Friday wouldn't comment on the race. The campaign office in Midtown Anchorage was largely deserted. The giant wall photos of Stevens were gone. So were the rows of campaign signs. All that remained was a pair of volunteers packing boxes.

(So... sad...)

(Tears... welling up...)

(Salty... salty discharge...)

No, it's not over yet, but it's certainly looking good for Begich.

Begich expands lead in Alaska Senate count

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Democrat Mark Begich overtook Republican/felon Ted Stevens late yesterday, at one point holding a lead of just three votes, and he has expanded his lead as the counting continues.

As the Anchorage Daily News is reporting (and CNN and Alaska Elections have the same numbers), Begich is now up by 814 -- "132,196 to 131,382 -- with the state still to count roughly 35,000 more ballots over the next week." In percentage terms, it's Begich 47.41, Stevens 47.12. [ADN update: 40,000 ballots left to be counted.]

Sean Quinn at FiveThirtyEight: "As we've pointed out and has been pointed out elsewhere, the remaining votes come from Begich-friendly districts. Mark Begich is now an overwhelming favorite to win the Alaska Senate seat."

Begich overtakes Stevens in Alaska vote count

By Michael J.W. Stickings

(Updated here -- Begich's lead has grown since I posted this.)

Alaska started counting its roughly 90,000 absentee, early, and "questioned" ballots (or about 30 percent of the total votes cast) today -- you'll remember that something was stinking badly there -- and Democratic challenger Mark Begich, who was ahead in the polls but behind on election night, has overtaken Republican incumbent and convicted felon Ted Stevens.

Stevens had a lead of 3,353 with almost 210,000 votes counted before today. His lead was down to 971 earlier today, with 28,519 additional votes counted, but now Begich is up by 3 -- yes, three:

The elections division still has over 10,000 ballots left to count today and thousands more through next week, but the latest numbers show Mark Begich leading Sen. Ted Stevens 125,019 to 125,016.

The new numbers, reflecting nearly 43,000 absentee ballots counted today, are from all over the state.

If the trend holds, Begich should be able to expand his lead and win.

(Unfortunately, incumbent Republican Don Young, who's corrupt in that specially Stevensesque sort of way, is still well ahead in his House race against Democratic challenger Ethan Berkowitz.)

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, however much we may wish to bid good riddance to Stevens. There is still much more counting to do.

CNN has the updated results for the three Alaska votes -- President, Senate, House -- here. See also Alaska Elections here (with updated unofficial results here).