Murkowski closes in, but prospects are dim

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) cut into her vote deficit Tuesday but she didn’t pick up nearly as many votes as her campaign had hoped.

Tea Party-backed candidate Joe Miller (R) began the day with a 1,668 vote lead and, as of 5 p.m. local time in Alaska, he still led by 1,469. That’s a gain of less than 200 votes for Murkowksi among the thousands of absentees counted so far. 

State elections officials expected to tally some 15,000 votes Tuesday — the vast majority of the ballots that were remaining. Given that Murkowski has picked up less than 200 votes from that batch thus far, it appears unlikely that she will be able to overtake Miller. 

Murkowski made her gains largely from absentees in Fairbanks and in southeast Alaska – areas where her campaign anticipated making up the most ground in the vote count Tuesday. But the numbers simply weren’t strong enough for Murkowski to make a significant dent in Miller’s lead. 

Miller has 52,360 votes to Murkowski’s 50,891.  

Another 9,000 ballots are set to be counted Friday, with a third round of military and overseas ballots to be tallied next week.