None of these numbers are matching up. As of the close of the day Monday, counting contested ballots, Murkowski had 92,164 and Miller had 90,458, according to the news reports. So I’m not sure where you’re getting the extra 9000 or so votes for Murkowski.
And the reports said that the counting of the absentee votes was just to begin on Monday.
So the accounts are not matching up. Makes it a lot easier to cheat if nobody knows what the heck is going on. These reporters need to get it straight, and if the election officials won’t give it to them straight then we have a problem.
102,000 ballots marked “Write-In”
92,000 ballots counted for Murkowski (85,000 uncontested)
That’s why the difference in numbers (all of mine rounded for simplicity). As for the absentee ballots, some districts counted theirs starting last week and just added in others as they arrived since then, while other districts didn’t count any at all until Monday the 15th so that they could do it all at once. Joe was hoping to pick up votes Monday with absentees, but instead it looks like “write-in” picked up a lot of votes due to some very strong Murkowski districts doing initial absentee tallying yesterday.
The math is looking pretty near impossible for Joe as of this point. If Murkowski gets 90% uncontested of the last 10,000 write-ins, she’ll total well more than enough uncontested votes to beat Joe.