Republican Gov. Sean Parnell
Several races remain uncalled as of Wednesday morning. We recently
ran through them here and here is an update for each race where we have new information. You can check who has won each key race at our
uncalled races tracker.
Called Races:
• AK-Sen: On Tuesday, 17,000 additional ballots were counted statewide. Republican Dan Sullivan's lead over Democratic incumbent Mark Begich slipped only 238 votes, not nearly enough for Begich to win. Most media outlets called the race for Sullivan on Wednesday morning, though Begich has not conceded. Pretty much all the remaining ballots would need to come from Begich's stronghold in rural Alaska for him to have a shot at winning, and that looks very unlikely.
Uncalled Races:
• AK-Gov: While Republicans were clinching the Senate seat, Republican Gov. Sean Parnell's fortunes were moving in the opposite direction: Independent Bill Walker's lead over Parnell grew by 839 votes and now stands at 4,004. There are about 33,400 ballots left, though election officials say more can come in before the Friday deadline.
The math looks pretty tough for Parnell, especially since he lost far more ground than Sullivan. The next round of counting is scheduled for Friday. It's not clear when all the ballots will be tabulated, though the state hopes they'll have the results certified by Nov. 28—two days before the gubernatorial inauguration day.
Head below the fold for a look at where other uncalled contests stand.
• AZ-02: On Tuesday most of the remaining ballots were counted in this swing district, and it appears that Republican Martha McSally has unseated Democratic Rep. Ron Barber. McSally currently leads Barber by 133 votes, with only about 200 to 250 ballots remaining countywide. Unless there's been a major error somewhere, this is a GOP pickup.
Because the margin between the two candidates is less than 0.1 percent, a mandatory recount will take place, but Team Blue shouldn't get its hopes up that the result will change. It will be a while before we have a final official result though. Arizona Public Media lays out what we're in for:
A congressional race in Arizona is subject to recount if the margin is fewer than 200 votes after the official secretary of state's canvass and certification, scheduled for Dec. 1.
The secretary then would go to Maricopa County Superior Court, where a judge would issue an order for the recount, which would be conducted electronically by the secretary of state. Following a hand count of a small number of randomly selected precincts and comparison of that with the electronic count.
If the count is within a predesignated margin, the results will be declared final, and the judge will issue an order to that effect.
For his part, Barber is not conceding and is preparing for the recount. We'll see if anything changes over the next few weeks but barring a major surprise, the GOP will flip a seat that they've spent the last eight years trying to retake.
• CA-07, 16, 26: We're expecting more votes to be counted in the first two seats on Wednesday, and possibly also in the 26th District. In the 7th District, Democratic Rep. Ami Bera currently trails by 530 votes; in the 16th District, Democratic Rep. Jim Costa is down 741 ballots; in CA-26, Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley is up 1,030 votes.
• NY-25: We're also expecting more votes to be counted on Wednesday in this contest. Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter leads Republican Republican Mark Assini by 582 votes. There are only about 3,000 ballots left and unless Assini performs exceptionally well with them, Slaughter will keep her seat.