If neither of the top candidates gets 50%, the question is, who did the majority of the voters for the other Dan Sullivan (now in last place) pick as their second choice?
I have no idea why people would have voted for him. Confused him with the “real” one? Protest vote? If so, against whom? Anyone have any idea?
Also, in MS, if there’s no recount, ballot curing will become VERY important. That’s where voters whose early or mail-in ballots were disqualified for some reason (signature mismatch, missing ID, wrong envelope, etc.) take steps to “cure” or fix the problem.
For the last couple weeks my wife has spent six to eight hours a day calling people in states across the country to help people cure their ballots. I’m pretty sure MS and AK will be their focus today.
Of course, in MS there was a Black independent candidate who got 20,000 votes. If he hadn’t run, chances are good Colom would have won hands down.
Likewise, in MT, a dem actually gave the win to the Republican. From the AP:
Independent candidate Seth Bodnar, a former president of the University of Montana, has prolific fundraising and the backing of former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who lost re-election in 2024. Bodnar and some Democratic lawmakers have pushed Democrat Alani Bankhead, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, to exit the race to clear the field for Bodnar but she refused to do so.
Bankhead got almost 50,000 votes which probably would have put Bodnar over the top.