November 19, 2008 07:04 AM UTC

Congratulations Senator Begich!

•  
• by: Danny the Red (hair)

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

My third cousin once removed by marriage is now a Senator.

8,212 more ballots in, that should be it except a few straggling votes. Begich by 3,724. Recount would cost $15,000.

Currently, Begich leads by 0.77%, which is outside the free 0.5% recount zone. The recount fee is a paltry $15,000, not a sum Stevens has ever had trouble acquiring via one means or another. Given his likely expulsion by either the Republican caucus or the U.S. Senate as a whole (though we are in “reconciliation” mode, so who knows?), it seems unlikely anyone besides Stevens himself would have the desire to pursue such action. Still, the Anchorage Daily News calls such a recount “likely.”

Congratulations, Senator Begich.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

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