Day After Election, Outcome Still Uncertain

Lial special senate election too close to call

CLOTHEN, LIAL--Just one day after millions of Lialans went to the polls for the state's special senate election, the outcome is still far from certain.

On Tuesday, more than 3.5 million voters cast their ballots to decide who will replace former senator Juslana Thompson (NAT), who vacated her seat after being appointed ambassador to Japan by President Menuhaeo. On election night, Nationalist Henry Mickeravi was barely leading 50.44% to Conservative John Dearling's 49.56%, a difference of about 30,000 votes.

However, thousands of provisional, absentee, and ballots from military members and overseas citizens still have to be counted, Lial Secretary of State Alan Dillon (CNS) said Wednesday.

"This race is extremely close, and I will personally work to ensure that every Lialan's vote is counted," Dillon told the NPF at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The final outcome will likely not be known for days or even weeks, Dillon said.

On election night, Mr. Mickeravi was hopeful, but stopped short of declaring victory.

"We're leading at the moment, and that is wonderful news to hear. But we want to wait until we know that we know that we know," he said at his campaign celebration in Monvaille.

As of Wednesday night, Mr. Dearling's campaign confirmed the state senator from Sonoma City will "not even consider conceeding until every vote is counted," a spokesman told the GBC.

"Obviously, it's a very close race at this point and there are still votes out there that need to be counted, and we won't make a decision until we know that every vote has been counted," Dearling told the media Wednesday afternoon.

Asked if he would consider legal action, including a recount, Dearling replied, "we'll take it on a day-by-day basis."

"Not all of the votes have been counted yet, so we can't make a decision as to what we're going to do until every vote has been counted," he said.

Secretary Dillon told reporters Wednesday more ballots are being counted than expected, because voter turn-out was much higher than his office and independent analysts predicted.

"In the days running up to the election, we were predicting anywhere from 28 per cent to 33 per cent. Our early estimates are now showing that turn-out was about 40 per cent," Dillon said, which is still low for a general election. "So there are several hundred thousand more votes that need to be counted than we anticipated there'd be, so our local elections officials are having an influx of ballots to count and process."

The last-minute surge in turn-out could be attributed to the building tension between the candidates toward the end of the campaign, as well as last-minute efforts to get out the vote.

"We know that a lot of people stayed home because they are apathetic and disenchanted with politics, some stayed home because of bad weather or because they didn't know either of the candidates very well. But I think the fact that both candidates made an effort there at the last second really grabbed a lot of people's attention and made them want to have a say," Dillon commented.

The initial count will not be finished until mid-to-late next week, Dillon's office said.