Every election, there always seems to be some big race decided by eleven votes…just to remind us that sometimes, whether or not we take the time to cast a ballot can make a difference. This time, it seems to be the Senate race in Minnesota. As of last night, Norm Coleman led Al Franken by 477 votes. Today, heretofore uncounted ballots have been added in and the difference is now 337. There will be more counted and this is all before they commence the recount that is mandatory in that state when an election is this close.
I also should have mentioned that while the polls were generally accurate, most of 'em were way off with all the races in Alaska. Polls predicted that the career of convicted felon Ted Stevens would be going down a series of tubes…and Stevens seemed to be hastening his loss the other night when he went around announcing that he hadn't been convicted of anything. It made him seem not only crooked but delusional, as well. Polls had him losing by 7-10% and at the moment — with some amount of ballots still outstanding — he has a slight lead. The pollsters were off with other Alaskan contests as well. There's no reason (yet) to suspect tampering but you have to wonder: Why Alaska and nowhere else?