Scott McAdams has gracefully conceded in the Alaska Senate race, which is probably the last bit of grace or civility we'll see out of this one for the next month. That's how long it could take to get a final result.
Alaskans, and the rest of nation, now wait for a result and that wait could be a long one.
"Now, the lawyers enter the equation. Just because a write-in bubble is filled, it doesn't mean they spelled Murkowski right," [KTVA reporter Matt] Felling told Plante, "It doesn't mean that all the technical aspects of putting pencil to paper actually worked out."
Plante asked Felling just how long it might actually take to count the ballots in Alaska. "Honestly, we're not going to start counting the absentees until November 18th and we've got a large, huge military population in Alaska. That's going to be a significant number," Felling responded, "It is looking like there is a battle to be fought. We will not have a certified winner until after Thanksgiving. Sorry, Bill."
Even with that seemingly long wait for a decision, don't expect visions of 2000 or the Minnesota Senate saga in 2008 as Felling explained, "We will have a good sense of where things are headed. I don't think it's going to be Bush/Gore or Franken/Coleman. But it's going to be pretty ugly by Alaska standards."
The lawyers entering the equation, at least on one side, will come from the NRSC, which "has been assisting the Miller campaign from day one and [will] continue to assist his campaign."
Miller said it is premature to concede the race given that write-in votes will not be individually counted until Nov. 18. With 98.6 percent of the precincts counted, Miller had just more than 34 percent of the vote, followed by Democrat Scott McAdams at nearly 24 percent.
The "write-in candidate" reached 41 percent. Those votes aren't attributed to Murkowski yet, because the optical scanners used in the initial count just registered the oval next to the write-in space on the ballot. Starting Nov. 18, when most of the absentees should be in, elections officials will start reviewing the ballots to verify the name. The 9 point cushion Murkowski has on this leaves quite a bit of room for ballots to be tossed. But don't expect Miller or his lawyers to make this easy.