Posted on 11/08/2006 3:01:35 PM PST by george76
Defeated U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., refused to concede Wednesday saying there remain votes yet to be counted in his tight race against the declared winner, Democrat Jon Tester.
Burns, who has not commented to reporters on the race since the votes were counted Tuesday night, released a statement at 1:47 p.m.
“Jon Tester ran a good race and has the lead right now, but it is extremely close,” Burns said. “The state of Montana has a process in place, and it is our obligation to see it through. There are still votes out there that deserve to be counted.
“I believe we need to continue to let that process play itself out, and there is no need to rush to a conclusion when votes are this close.”
As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, the unofficial vote count showed Tester with a 2,847-vote lead, with all 867 precincts reporting. Here were the totals:
- Tester, 198,302 votes, for 49.1 percent.
- Burns, 195,455 votes for 48.4 percent.
- Stan Jones, Libertarian, 10,324 votes for 2.6 percent.
Only two kinds of ballots had yet to be counted Wednesday afternoon, said Bowen Greenwood, a spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Johnson.
People who went to the polls Tuesday, but forgot to bring some kind of identification, were able to cast provisional ballots.
Those ballots will only be counted if the voter returns today with proper identification by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Greenwood estimated that about 1,000 provisional ballots were cast Tuesday.
Also, the office will continue to count ballots coming in from Montanans serving in the military overseas for a few days after the election.
Greenwood said it was impossible to know how many of those may come in.
(Excerpt) Read more at missoulian.com ...
It is a very long shot.
But the military deserves to have their votes counted too.
What gets me are the many races in which the candidates win by a 100 or a thousand or so votes...you know extremely close...that's what smells...no strong mandates any-where!
The years before the civil war were much like that...polarization....only in this case its the male female polarisation that is occurring in many of these races.
How typical. The Rats think the military ballots are unimportant.
The Rats hate the military and know that the military will not waste their votes.
" Makes you wonder if George Soros was donating to the campaigns of the local Libertarian candidates..."
excellent !
I wouldn't put it past him
I didn't know about that
Right! Wow -- of course he did. Makes perfect sense!!!
And Libertarians will continue to poll around 2% and Democrats will keep winning until you get the message
This is the difference :
Tester, 198,302 votes, for 49.1 percent.
- Burns, 195,455 votes for 48.4 percent.
- Jones, Libertarian, 10,324 votes for 2.6 percent.
I saw that one posted on a thread and thought it was very telling.
I will ping BSF because on that other thread, posters said that Jones is a real lulu... a totally wasted vote.
I'm only going to take a guess...but I doubt that there are more than 1,500 military absentee ballots involved...of which half probably are already there. So its hard to see this changing much. But....you can never tell. It might be the most shocking moment of 2006...to see a guy win with military absentee ballots.
You fail to understand that the 'GOP' as is the DNC, is a grass-roots organization, bottom to top. You can't complain about a party insofar as you remove yourself from involvement in it.
If Burns got all those votes Stan Jones got, we'd be looking at a re-election. Libertarians are spoiler candidates that elect Democrats.
Heck, Burns only needed 3000 of them.
Yea .. I've noticed that
I think in many places they count the military along with others absentee ballots last- hoping the candidate behind will concede and it won't be "necessary" to count them at all. I think this practice has been going on for years in many places (like FL) and these tight races bring a little sunshine on the issue.
JD Hayworth in Arizona is complaining because a meager 250,000 early, military and provisional votes have not been counted. Not all would be in his 5th District but they could change the outcome.
Historically, early ballots are more likely -R instead of -D. Same with military. The local rag (AZ Repulsive) says JD should just give it up!
Kaka
Worth keeping in mind that Montana military can only vote if they pay taxes in the state.
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