AND IN ALASKA – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  The election still isn't over.  There is still one Senate seat to be decided, and it's in Alaska.

The contest is between Joe Miller, who won the Republican primary, and incumbent GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski, who, after losing the primary, ran as a write-in Republican.  The Politico reports the latest:

Republican Joe Miller gained ground in the Senate race Tuesday, cutting into the vote lead for write-in candidates – most of which, presumably, are for Sen. Lisa Murkowski – by about 2,100 votes.

Miller had 35 percent of the vote and write-in candidates collectively had 40 percent, after election officials tabulated 27,000 additional absentee and early ballots Tuesday. That margin is smaller that the 7-point lead – or 13,439 votes — that write-in candidates had over Miller after election night...

...the new totals come as a major boost for Miller, who now trails the pool of write-in ballots by 11,333 votes headed into the next day's write-in vote count. Election officials will begin to open the more than 92,000 write-in ballots Wednesday to determine Murkowski’s vote totals.

COMMENT:  It may take a few weeks to sort this out.  The odds still favor Murkowski.  One element in the race is the prestige and influence of Sarah Palin, who endorsed Miller.  Alaska, of course, is her home state.

November 10, 2010