50,000 Votes still uncounted in Alaska senator and governor’s races

A week after the midterm elections, 50,000 ballots still remain to be counted in Alaska which could strengthen Republican control in the U.S. Senate and decide the governor in a key state.

As reported by the local Alaska Dispatch News, the 50,000 votes will be the ones that finally decide whether a Republican or Democratic senator will serve in Washington, with Republican challenger Dan Sullivan seeking the seat and leading his Democratic rival, incumbent Mark Begich, by just 8,149 votes.

The votes that remain to be counted come, by and large, from the huge state’s remotest areas, with many of them cast by Indians, and it could still take several days to get them all tallied.

In the Nov. 4 elections, Alaska was the last state to close its polling places.

It did so after the results of virtually all races in the rest of the country were known and it had been confirmed that the Republicans had taken control of the upper house, which had been the milliondollar question in the balloting.

If the Republicans win in Alaska, they would hold 53 seats in the Senate, needing only 51 for a majority, and Louisiana would then be the only senatorial contest yet to be decided, although that will occur on Dec. 6 in a runoff election.

In addition, the 50,000 votes that remain to be counted hold the key to the state governor’s race, with independent candidate Bill Walker leading Republican incumbent Sean Parnell by just 3,165 votes.