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Tuesday’s vote count showed the convicted Alaska Senator trailing Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,700 votes– more than the 2,500 overseas ballots still uncounted.

And, go out with some class, would you? And concede.

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was defeated in his bid for re-election on Tuesday.

Mr. Stevens, a Republican and a 40-year incumbent, was trailing his Democratic challenger, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, by 3,724 votes out of more than 315,000 cast after state election officials on Tuesday counted more than 35,000 absentee and other outstanding ballots.

Only an estimated 2,500 ballots remain to be counted next week, according to Gail Fenumiai, the state elections director.

“I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Mr. Begich said. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day.”

Mr. Stevens did not immediately concede the race. Presuming the results are certified, the senator could request a recount, but he would have to pay for it.

Time to retire, Senator and serve your sentence.

Bye Bye……

The recount has started in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race between incumbent Senator Norm Coleman and Democrat challenger Al Franken.

The recount plan has been approved.

In a meeting that lasted less than an hour today, the state Canvassing Board unanimously approved a plan to hand recount, beginning tomorrow morning, nearly 3 million ballots to determine who won the U.S. Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman, the incumbent, and Democrat Al Franken, the challenger.

The five-member panel also unanimously decided to take at least a few days to determine what to do about requests by the Franken campaign to review rejected absentee ballots and count any that were improperly voided.

Coleman leads by such a slim margin that a hand recount is mandatory. Coleman’s unofficial lead is now 215 votes, after results from audits — mini-recounts to determine voting machines’ accuracy — are counted.

The recount is slated to begin tomorrow morning, essentially resetting the race to 0-0, and will last at least though the beginning of December.

Stay tuned……

Republican Tony Strickland inched ahead of Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson by an additional 70 votes in the latest round of ballot-counting, leaving Strickland with a lead of 2,258 votes Monday.

The two candidates for the 19th state Senate District seat have been neck-and-neck since election night, although Strickland has pulled ahead gradually as more late absentee and provisional ballots are counted. He now has 50.3 percent of the vote to Jackson’s 49.7 percent.

On Monday afternoon, the County of Ventura released the results of 14,934 more ballots, bringing the total counted to 318,603. That means that about 95 percent of the ballots cast in the Nov. 4 election have been counted, according to county Elections Division estimates of how many votes were cast in the county.

The votes left to count are absentee ballots that were turned in on Election Day, or provisional ballots. Both take longer than standard ballots to count because they have to be checked against the voter rolls.

According to Flap’s math Republican Tony Strickland has extended his lead to 2,211 votes versus 1,560 votes last Wednesday.

The raw figures:

Santa Barbara County:

• Hannah-Beth Jackson: 70,098
• Tony Strickland: 56,744

Los Angeles County:

• Hannah-Beth Jackson: 11,611
• Tony Strickland: 15,806

Ventura County:

• Hannah-Beth Jackson: 112,771
• Tony Strickland: 124,141

As Flap said before, this race is over and Tony Strickland has been elected. There will be a recount but Hannah-Beth Jackson would need a miracle to pull off a win.

But, stay tuned for more ballot counts as they are released.