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Still Waiting: An Update on Still-Unresolved Races

Election Day was over a week ago, but there are still a number of unresolved contests around the country. By popular request, here’s a recap of where things stand. In almost every one of the races listed below, local officials have not finished – or have not started – counting absentee and provisional ballots.

Senate

Alaska: Residents cast more than 92,500 write-in ballots on Nov. 2, about 40 percent of all votes. State officials have started to go through them. The winner of the race depends on the number of ballots legally cast for Senator Lisa Murkowski, who ran as a write-in candidate after losing in the G.O.P. primary to Joe Miller. But with Mr. Miller’s percentage at 35.5, Ms. Murkowski seems likely to win.

Governor

Minnesota: After 2008’s marathon Senate battle, there are two syllables Minnesotans probably never wanted to hear again: re-count. The Democratic candidate, Mark Dayton, leads Republican Tom Emmer by about 9,000 votes, a margin which would automatically start a recount. Election officials are rechecking county votes before the deadline for certifying the election, Nov. 23, but a recount appears imminent.

House

California 11: Democratic Representative Jerry McNerney declared victory on Wednesday after an updated count gave him a lead of about 1,700 votes. He had been ahead of the Republican challenger, David Harmer, by only 121 ballots the day after the election. Still, the Associated Press has not called the race. (The New York Times bases its calls for House races on the A.P.’s calls.)

California 20: The Associated Press has not declared a winner here either, but, like Mr. McNerney, that did not stop the Democratic incumbent, Representative Jim Costa, from raising his hand in triumph on Wednesday. He actually trailed the Republican, Andy Vidak, by 1,800 votes just after the election, but the latest tally put Mr. Costa about 1,300 votes ahead.

Illinois 8: Republican Joe Walsh leads Melissa Bean, the Democratic incumbent, by about 600 votes, with an unknown number of absentee and provisional ballots left to be counted. Two of the three counties in the district will count their outstanding ballots on Nov. 16. The third, Cook County, has been counting those ballots daily.

Kentucky 6: Democratic Representative Ben Chandler leads Republican Andy Barr by about 650 votes. On Friday, county clerks around Kentucky will recheck their vote totals.

New York 1: Representative Timothy Bishop was winning. Then he was losing. After a review of voting machines, he trailed Republican Randy Altschuler by about 400 votes. Now, the Bishop campaign has indicated that they will ask a judge to call for a recount.

New York 25: An examination of absentee ballots is underway. Republican Anne Marie Buerkle led Democratic incumbent Dan Maffei by about 700 ballots in the district, which includes Syracuse. Both campaigns are monitoring the process.

Texas 27: Representative Solomon Ortiz, the Democratic incumbent, wants a recount. Republican Blake Farenthold won about 800 more votes than Mr. Ortiz. The director of the state’s Elections Division rejected Mr. Ortiz’s first recount request, but a spokesman for the Ortiz campaign said they are already in the process of amending the request.

Micah Cohen is FiveThirtyEight’s former managing editor.

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