Alaskans Still Unsure Who Will Be Working Against Their Best Interests in the Senate

For the second election cycle in a row, an incredibly tight senate race will leave citizens of the See Russia From Your Kitchen State waiting about a fortnight or so to find out who will be representing them in our nation's capitol.

Will it be the lady whose daddy loves her so much he made her a senator? Will it be the make-believe lumberjack minion of Sarah Palin? Or will it be the Democrat? (Spoiler Alert: It will not be the Democrat.)

In the end, 41% of the votes went to write-in candidates while 34.3% went to the Republican nominee Miller. Under Alaska election rules, all of the ballots will be counted to determine how many were for write-in candidate Murkowski. Only 23.6% went to McAdams.

So, Democrat Scott McAdams — who has since conceded — ended with less than a quarter of the vote? Weren't there a bunch of progressive out there trying to convince us that he actually had a shot? 23.6 percent is really not very much of a percent. To put things into a little perspective, Alvin Greene — novelty candidate/comic book character in South Carolina's senate race — ended his night with 28 percent. Sure, sure, McAdams was in a three-way race. But he was in a three way race against two Republicans, one of which stomped around the state with his own personal mercenary police force and the other of which was a write-in candidate with an unspellable name.

But, you know, 41 percent over 34.3 seems pretty decisive. Sure, we don't know how many of those write-in votes were for Liza Murblowsky, but we can assume that most of them are, right? How many write-in candidates can their be?

There are also 10,645 questioned ballots according to the Anchorage Daily News, so there are a lot of votes potentially still in play for both Republican candidates. And a flood of last-minute write-in candidates, which was pushed by Miller's conservative supporters, could mean that many of those unopened write-in ballots are not for Murkowski.

So, conservatives were trying get a bunch of people to write-in votes for other non-Murglebrowski candidates? Wouldn't those people's votes have been more effective if they'd just been cast for Miller? Bah! What do I know? Fuckin' numbers! How do they work?

Originally, the state had planned to begin the count on November 18. But Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell says he wants to move the count up to start next week.

Here's what will happen: The state will begin counting absentee ballots on Tuesday. The questioned ballots will be looked at later in the week. The count of the write-in ballots will begin on Wednesday in Juneau, and could continue through Friday. Absentee write-ins will be counted as they come in, and the final count will occur on November 17 for overseas absentees.

At which point, the two remaining candidates will find out which one will be doomed to spend their time toiling in a frozen, dark wasteland mostly devoid of humanity and which one will stay in Alaska.

Tags: Alaska, Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski, Scott McAdams, Senate

Stephen Colbert Sings Write-In Candidate Lisa "Miller" Murkowski to Certain Victory

Midterm elections rarely get as interesting as they've gotten this year in Nevada, Alaska and Delaware. Which is to say, midterm elections rarely get interesting…

More election coverage after the jump.

The Colbert Report airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30pm / 10:30c.

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Tags: Alaska, Christine O’Donnell, Delaware, Harry Reid, Hispanic, Joe Miller, Karl Rove, LGBT, Lisa Murkowski, Midterms, Nevada, Religion, Scott McAdams, Senate, Sharron Angle

Lisa Murkmowkowalsky Might Actually Have a Chance as a Write-In Candidate

Some new polling shows that Alaska Sen. Lisa Murcalski — who lost the GOP nomination for reelection to Tea Party Expressbagger Joe Miller earlier this month — might actually have some life in her yet as a write-in candidate. Provided she can get Alaskans to remember to write-in in the name "Lisa Murgelby" on their ballots…

First, a CNN poll showed Ms. Murkowski running just 2 points behind the Republican Joe Miller among likely voters. The Democratic candidate, Scott McAdams, was in third place with 22 percent of the vote.

In addition, a poll provided to the New York Times by Craciun Research shows Ms. Murkowski with an apparent lead. The poll gave Ms. Murkowski 41 percent of the vote, Mr. Miller 30 percent, and Mr. McAdams, 19 percent.

That might give you some idea about how politics work in Alaska. The Democrat guy is losing by more than ten points to two different Republicans. And he's only has a statistically insignificant lead over this polar bear. (Green Party's still a way distant fifth.)

Anyway, now that this is pretty much a horse race between elephants (the reads weird, doesn't it?) and Lisa Murkelstein officially is on her own, it appears that the gloves are off, and she's free to go after the teabaggers who stole her nomination in the best way she knows how. With actors pretending to be people who care…

"Who's senate seat would it be, Alaska's or California's?"

That's kind of a silly question, lady who was paid by Lisa Murghblowskeen to ask that.

Obviously, it would be Sarah Palin's.

Tags: Alaska, California, Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski, Scott McAdams, Senate

Colbert on John McCain's Victory Over John McCain

In the wake of his hard-fought and high-priced primary victory over Tea Party darling JD Hayworth, a lot of pundits are accusing John McCain of turning his back on his principles and shedding every last thread of his dignity all in a desperate attempt to keep his Senate seat. But that's unfair and simply not true. John McCain turned his back on his principles and shed every last thread of his dignity in a desperate attempt to become President.

In case you're wondering, yes, PunditMetaphors.com is now a real website.

The Daily Show's latest coverage of Indecision 2010 can be found below.

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Tags: Alaska, Arizona, Charlie Crist, Florida, Frank Murkowski, House of Representatives, JD Hayworth, Jeff Greene, Joe Miller, John McCain, Jon Stewart, Kendrick Meek, Lisa Murkowski, Midterms, Sarah Palin, Senate, Stephen Colbert, Tea Party, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Video

Could Teabag Upset Pave Way for Democratic Win in Alaska? (Awww . . . You're Cute)

Now that Alaska Republicans appear to have chosen a Tea Party-backed, anti-Medicare, science-denying nominee for the U.S. Senate, people are starting to wonder if Democratic candidate Scott McAdams might actually have a shot at picking up Lisa Murkowski's seat…

McAdams, the mayor of Sitka, Alaska, had raised just $9,175 by the end of June, when he filed his last report with the FEC. This month, he was  just one of nine candidates nationwide cited by federal regulators for failing to file a mandatory pre-primary report.

As TPM reported, even the URL for McAdams' blog on the free blogspot service is broken.

Well, maybe Joe Miller won't be all that bad as a senator. Or maybe he'll get kidnapped by aliens. You never know, anything can happen.

Tags: Alaska, Democrats, Joe Miller, Lisa Murkowski, Medicare, Midterms, Science & Technology, Scott McAdams, Senate, Tea Party