Thursday, January 03, 2008

MN Special Election

The State Senate special election here still remains really tight. Republican Ray Cox currently holds a 220 vote lead with 66% of precincts reporting (42 of 63)

RAY COX (R) 3556 50.08
KEVIN DAHLE (D) 3333 46.94

However, Northfield still largely hasn't reported in. Northfield has nine precincts, eight of which still are yet to report (the one that is in went for Dahle 143 to 106 (56.75% - 42.06%)). Even beyond the college students, Northfield is considered at least liberal leaning, so its fertile ground for Dahle.

More importantly, my precinct specifically (which includes most, but not all, Carleton students) isn't in yet. Why does that matter? Simple. Turnout hasn't been very high this election. I've seen precincts with as few as four votes cast. Most have been around 100 cast. When my roommate voted at about 6 PM tonight (two hours before polls closed), he told me 820 people had voted in my Northfield precinct. This is an overwhelmingly liberal precinct, with a lot of voters coming in. Once Northfield reports, we'll see where this race ends up.

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