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[Milwaukiedave]

Here is an excellent analysis by Nate Silver over at 538 about the outstanding ballots that have yet to be counted in the Alaska Senate Race.

Uncounted Votes May Push Begich Past Stevens

Also note that someone posted in the reply section, that even if Stevens were to prevail, he still faces banishment from the Senate. At that point a special election would need to be held within 90 days. If that happened, any number of people could run (including Palin and Begich).

Two other races still hang in the balance as well.

[khyber]

wait what?

This is even A RACE???

Alaskans may have re-elected a convicted fraudster to another term in office?

WTF is up with that whacky state? You guys need more sun up there.

[bacasper]

Just because someone is a convicted felon doesn't necessarily make them unfit for office.

Nelson Mandela spent 25 years in prison before becoming president of South Africa.

How much motivation for Stevens' prosecution was political?

[Gatsby]

[canuckistan]

The interest of Alaska's voters to vote, even with the McCain/Palin ticket, is curiously 11% lower than in 2004.

[Milwaukiedave]

[Kuros]

This is a case study of why you should not early vote if you can avoid doing so: your votes are last in priority to be counted.

[khyber]

[krats1976]

Time for an Alaskan to weigh in:

Ted Stevens IS Alaskan politics. He had his hand in AK politics before we were even a state.

Add to that the fact that 75% of Alaska's land is owned by the federal government, and we have only 3 voices in Congress to help make decisions for that land and you can understand why it's important to Alaskans to have someone powerful in the Senate. I've voted for him myself in the past for that exact reason (and because this is the first time anyone half decent has run against him).

One of the teachers at my school here in Houston was an avid poll follower and he was convinced that Stevens would lose. I told him I'd be surprised if he did. He thought I was nuts. Well... I am Alaskan. ;0)

[Milwaukiedave]

Stevens may be a senator without a home party:

Senate GOP to Privately Debate Stevens� Fate Next Week
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Senate Republican Conference leaders have received notice that Sen. Jim DeMint plans to call for a vote next week on ejecting convicted Sen. Ted Stevens from the caucus.

To be ejected from the GOP Conference is not the same as being expelled from the Senate. Stevens, R-Alaska, would remain a senator and retain his floor voting rights, but he would not be able to participate in Republicans-only decisions, such as picking party leaders, and he would lose his committee assignments.

A GOP leadership aide said DeMint, R-S.C., notified Senate GOP leaders Monday that he plans to make a motion to remove Stevens from the Senate Republican Conference during a Nov. 18 closed-door meeting.

During that meeting, Senate Republicans are scheduled to elect their party leaders for the 111th Congress.

�The GOP leadership should be the first to act on this by expelling Stevens from the Republican conference and not assigning him any committee seats,� said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton. �We should clean our own house.�

It was not immediately clear whether DeMint�s effort would garner support from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. � who has called on Stevens to resign � or other GOP leaders.

DeMint�s effort will fizzle unless he lines up another senator to second his ejection motion.

If the effort succeeds, Stevens, the Senate�s longest-serving Republican, would be stripped of his seats on the Appropriations and Commerce committees, both of which he once led.

Stevens also would lose his other three committee assignments: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Rules and Administration; and Joint Library and would no longer be allowed to vote in weekly conference meetings.

�This is going to be pretty important moment for McConnell in terms of how to demonstrate leadership,� the GOP leadership aide said.

Those committee posts would not be officially reassigned until January after Democrats and Republicans negotiate a committee structure that almost certainly will include less seats for Republicans, who lost ground in the recent election.

DeMint�s move came on the same day he previewed changes to GOP conference rules that he intends to propose next week. His proposals, which strike at the heart of the Senate�s seniority-based system, have fueled questions about whether internal decisions that begin next week might be postponed until January. By then, the outcome of three undecided races involving Republican incumbents � Stevens, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia � are expected to be resolved.

McConnell, Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona and GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee are not expected to face challenges next week, but lower rungs of the leadership ladder likely will be contested.

Senate GOP to Privately Debate Stevens� Fate Next Week
The Stevens Case
A federal jury in Washington convicted Stevens Oct. 27 of seven felony counts of lying on his U.S. Senate financial disclosure forms. The jury determined that Stevens engaged in a multiyear scheme to conceal more than $250,000 worth of gifts from VECO Corp., a now-defunct oil-services company and its chief executive, Bill Allen.

Stevens, who maintains he is innocent and is planning to appeal the verdict, defied the polls and maintains a razor-thin lead over Democratic challenger Mark Begich in a race that will likely be decided by still-to-be-counted absentee ballots in the coming weeks.

If the Republican conference chooses to boot Stevens, it would be acting in advance of any disciplinary action from the Senate Ethics Committee, which has been silent on the matter since July 29, the day Stevens was indicted.

Prior to the election, several Republicans, many of them in competitive races, called for Stevens to step down. DeMint and McConnell were among them.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002984890

[Gatsby]

This is interesting. I had thought that Palin would be able to appoint herself to the Senate, much as Murkowski appointed his daughter to replace him when he became governor. But the voters changed that law.

[Milwaukiedave]

Gatsby,

Yes, that is true. I was going to bring that up, but then again it all becomes moot point if Begich pulls out a win. If not, then let the drama begin.

[Milwaukiedave]

From 538:

Stevens' Lead Shrinks to 971 Votes, With Many Yet to be Counted
The state of Alaska is now reporting that Ted Stevens has 118,602 votes to Mark Begich's 117,631, a gap of 971 ballots. This incorporates 28,519 ballots which have been counted since this morning.

Prior to today, Stevens' lead over Begich had been 3,257 votes, with the state of Alaska having reported that about 90,000 votes remained to be counted. Although some of those votes will be thrown out (such as duplicate votes when the voter both sent in an absentee ballot and came to the polling place), there are still plenty of votes remaining to be counted, and Begich is making up ground at a sufficient pace that he appears more likely than not to surpass Stevens.

A significant number of additional votes will be counted before close of business today, although approximately 8 of Alaska's 40 house districts won't finalize their counting process until Friday at the earliest. The areas that will report late consist mostly of rural, Begich-friendly districts (contrary to our earlier reporting, Begich performed quite well in rural Alaska; his weaknesses were in the Anchorage Suburbs and the Mat-Su Valley).

[Gatsby]

[Milwaukiedave]

Gatsby, thanks for the update. Keep in mind this is still the initial count, we still have the recount as well as any legal challanges that may or may not happen. I have my fingers crossed though.