Close Calls in the Senate

Not much has been resolved between 1:30 last night (this morning) when I went to bed. CNN has Franken with 570 (!!) votes of Coleman in Minnesota. Smith has a 20,000 vote lead on Merkley in Oregon, but only 3/4 of precincts are reporting. Chambliss is right at 50% in Georgia, with 99% of the precincts reporting. And Steven is ahead of Begich in Alaksa by about 3500 votes with 99% of the precincts reporting. Chambliss' slim 1% lead that gave him the majority last night has evaporated, and a runoff is likely (this is not necessarily a good outcome for Democrats, but we'll get into that later and it's better than outright defeat.) In Minnesota, Coleman's margin falls within Minnesota's requirements for a mandatory recount and the Associated Press is forced to "uncall" the race. Stevens lead will probably require a contest over as-yet uncounted ballots. Merkley is trailing, but apparently the precincts remaining are in heavily Democratic areas and Smith's narrow lead may be upended by the end of the day. 

So in other words...stay tuned!

UPDATE: CNN now has Franken ahead of Coleman, but within the recount margin at a difference of 306 votes. Merkley is closing on Smith, down by only 200 votes now with 30% of the precincts yet to be counted.