Coin Flip: Young's Lead Narrows in AK-AL GOP Primary

Almost two weeks after election day in Alaska, incumbent Congressman Don Young's lead over Lt. Governor Sean Parnell narrowed to 129 votes for the Republican nomination to the state's lone seat in the House. Here's the latest count as of 9:15 PM EST on Friday after most of the 25,000 absentee and question ballots were counted today:

• LEDOUX, Gabrielle: 9575 votes - 9.32%
• PARNELL, Sean: 46514 votes - 45.28%
• YOUNG, Don: 46643 votes - 45.40%

Alaska has 40 state house districts, and the director of the Division of Elections says that about a dozen house districts' absentee and question ballots are yet to be counted. Additionally, absentee ballots sent from overseas will be accepted until next Wednesday, when they will be counted. It's looking more and more likely that a recount will happen ... which means another two week wait.

[By the way, if there's a tie, the election is decided by coin flip. Yes, a coin flip. It happened two years ago in the Democrat primary in Alaska State House District 39, where both candidates were tied with 767 votes, and the incumbent Democrat was knocked off by a challenger when he called tails. Ridiculous ... right?]

I originally predicted a 35 to 40% turnout in the Alaska primary back in March. With these votes in, the turnout is now 39.3%. Looks like my expectations will be exceeded ... this, along with Palin at the top of the ticket, should make every Democrat candidate, statewide to legislative, afraid for massive Republican and conservative-independent turnout in November.