Republican State Legislator Wins by One Vote

Alaska's House District 7 was perhaps the closest race in the entire country this year - closer than even the Minnesota Senate race.  Why?  The election was decided by a single vote.

Incumbent State Representative Mike Kelley - a Republican - was actually behind when the results rolled in on election day.  Even then, though, the race was so close that officials decided to look back at the results.  Also, the overseas ballots had yet to be counted.

After realizing that seven ballots had been counted twice in one precinct and two ballots had not even been counted in another the difference in votes was only four.

And after the overseas ballots were counted, it was all over for the Democrat.  Even though he had the lead in them, the counting errors previously mentioned caused the Republican to win.

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News.