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 ...
They never are. It's stupid for Republicans in close races to concede until EVERY vote is counted, especially military ballots.
Wonder how the Dems will toss out the military ballots?
I also mentioned, and it was not just 1 clinton we got, we got 2 of them and now we have to suffer thru the other one.
Great example of retardation where throwing away the vote to a third party gets you the fire breathing communist Democrat
Needs repeating. Idiotic libertarians. They deserve what they get now.
Who's They? Democrats who win as a result? Good message.
GOP
The other FReepers are from Montana.
So it was a request from them to help.
Thanks for the joke.
Losertarians as Medved rightly calls them.
I think voting for third party candidates in major elections is retarded unless you like getting Democrats elected.
LOL! You guys are killing me with the Libertarian bashing! Maybe Burns should have retired instead of trying to break Strom Thurmond's record.
Losertarians...
Some are young and stupid. Some are government employed and attached to Democrats for their pay and so forth.
That is significant.
Why isn't he calling for a recount? Surely the vote totals justify a recount of the entire state.
I hope so.
It's a shame Libertarians would even think of voting a way that gets Democrats elected.
Most of us on FR expected it, I sure did. They are always helping the Democrats or pushing drugs it seems.
LOL again! Did Libertarian candidates lose 26 House seats & six Senate seats?
We don't hold power anywhere, remember?
I'm a small-L Libertarian who voted straight Republican. Lots of Libertarians did. If the GOP got spanked that's their fault, right? I though Republicans were supposed to be champions of individual responsibility?
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