Begich Poised to Defeat Stevens After Latest Alaska U.S. Senate Vote Count

Update (5:30 p.m. PST): Mayor Begich further expands lead in late Tuesday vote counting. Now up 3,724 votes over Sen. Stevens, for a nearly 1.2% lead. Mark Begich will be the first Democratic Senator from Alaska in thirty years.

Latest from the Alaska Division of Elections, as of 4:18 p.m. local time, Tuesday, November 18:

US SENATOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		438
Precincts Reporting		438	100.0 %
Times Counted		320166/495731	64.6 %
Total Votes		315573
Begich, Mark	DEM	150728	47.76%
Bird, Bob	AI	13113	4.16%
Gianoutsos, Ted	NA	1375	0.44%
Haase, Fredrick D.	LIB	2482	0.79%
Stevens, Ted	REP	147004	46.58%
Write-in Votes		871	0.28%

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Our earlier post continues below:


Mark Begich, Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, is almost certain to become the 58th Democrat in the United States Senate this next term, as the Alaska Division of Elections shortly before 1 p.m. AKST reported the results of the count of over 16,000 additional absentee and questioned ballots from Southeast Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and Anchorage.

The Division of Elections expects to count an additional 6,000 votes this afternoon, all of which are absentee ballots from in and around Anchorage, generally a Begich stronghold.

Begich now leads Stevens by 2,374 votes, or .77% of the vote, 146,286 to 143,912.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Today's count should pretty much decide the race, although there will be overseas absentees to count over the next couple days and a likely recount in early December.

Since the state moved to mostly machine counting, recent Alaska recounts have resulted in little change in the final tally.

Begich has so far today doubled the 1,022-vote lead he held over Stevens on Friday, the last time the state counted votes in the race.

If Begich wins, he'll be the first Democrat to represent Alaska in the U.S. Senate in nearly 30 years.

If Al Franken defeats Norm Coleman in Minnesota in a race still too close to call, and if Democrat Jim Martin can beat Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss in a Georgia special election early next month, Democrats may claim a "filibuster-proof" majority, should all members of their caucus vote as a block on issues facing filibuster by the minority Republicans.

Here is the latest vote count from the Alaska Division of Elections:

US SENATOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		438
Precincts Reporting		438	100.0 %
Times Counted		311954/495731	62.9 %
Total Votes		307587
Begich, Mark	DEM	146286	47.56%
Bird, Bob	AI	12829	4.17%
Gianoutsos, Ted	NA	1334	0.43%
Haase, Fredrick D.	LIB	2398	0.78%
Stevens, Ted	REP	143912	46.79%
Write-in Votes		828	0.27%

In the meantime, the GOP caucus in the U.S. Senate delayed their vote on sanctioning Sen. Stevens after his seven felony convictions late last month, preferring to await news of whether Stevens would be returned to the Senate by Alaska's voters.


Updated vote counts will be made available here when available from the Division of Elections.