House Races Still Open

There's still some hope for Darcy Burner's campaign to unseat Dave Reichert here in the Seattle metro area, but it's slim (via the Seattle P-I):

Rep. Dave Reichert's lead in his re-election battle remained nearly unchanged in a new absentee ballot count Friday, even though they came from eastern King County, the portion of the 8th District that has slightly favored Darcy Burner, his Democratic challenger.

The one-term Republican congressman now leads Burner by 3,095 votes, or 1.7 percent, 93,283 to her 90,188. Reichert leads his opponent in less populated, more conservative eastern Pierce County by a much wider margin than her lead in King County.

Pierce County didn't tabulate additional absentees Friday and has about 12,000 to 20,000 yet to count. The Reichert campaign estimates that King County still has about 18,000 uncounted absentees, but the Burner camp suggested that number could be as high as 85,000.

The WaPo notes that it is one of nine House races that are still very close and not yet called, including:

Rep. Deborah Pryce, a member of the House Republican leadership, leads her central Ohio race by 3,536 votes, pending the count of more than 9,000 provisional ballots.

Elections officials in the Columbus, Ohio-area have decided to delay that count by one day, to Nov. 19, so it does not disrupt the Michigan-Ohio State football game in Columbus on Nov. 18.

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), who called Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) a coward last November, is ahead of her challenger, Victoria Wulsin (D), by 2,862 votes. Counting provisional and absentee ballots could take nearly two weeks.

Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.), who threatened to slap her wheelchair-bound Libertarian opponent after a debate late last month, is ahead of Democrat Gary Trauner by fewer than a thousand votes as canvassing continued. The Libertarian, Thomas Rankin, has garnered approximately 7,500 votes.

Keeping my fingers crossed.