Alaska Primary: U.S. Senate - UPDATED

I know the national media is talking about this, but here's what they're NOT saying: with 98% of precincts reporting, Tea Party-backed Joe Miller is leading the incumbent Lisa Murkowski by less than 2,000 votes. Disputed & absentee ballots have not yet been counted.

As you might imagine, it takes some time to get the ballots from all the remote Bush villages, over 90% of which are accessible only by air. It ain't over yet; stay tuned.

UPDATE #1: Per the Daily News,

The final results of the race won't be known for over a week. The Alaska Division of Elections said over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested and as of Monday night 7,600 had been returned. The first count of absentees will be next Tuesday and there will be two subsequent counts as the absentee votes trickle in on Sept. 3 and on Sept. 8.

UPDATE #2:

Lisa Murkowski said this morning that she was surprised Joe Miller is leading but that she’s optimistic the count of absentee votes will turn it around.

“It ain’t over yet folks. There are thousands of absentees that are yet to come in,” Murkowski said this morning at her campaign headquarters in Anchorage.