I honestly don’t know the answer to your question.
The latest returns reported (288 precincts) added 21 to the previous report and Miller’s %age went from 51.46% to 51.71% — the %age of precincts reporting went from 61% to 65.8%.
Those 21 precincts were about half from Anchorage (where Murkowski was “supposed” to dominate) plus 2 from Dillingham, 4 from Bethel, 5 from Nome.
I suspect one surprise (among many) of the evening will be how well Miller has done in Anchorage.
I’m guessing that his numbers in the Mat-Su Valley may not have been as high as expected.
This is purely a guess on my part.
First let me apologize for misinformation. House District 6 is NOT Southeast — my mistake was in just looking at its State Senator who is from Angoon in SE (the panhandle) of Alaska. But it’s one of those huge, huge Senate districts — probably bigger than New England. The District 6 representative is from Beaver, which is in the eastern part of Alaska — Yukon river territory, Ft. Yukon, Chalkytsik, etc. It’s very, very, very rural — mostly Athabascan villages, such as Ft. Yukon.
Anyway, the next batch of about 25 precincts has now reported AND 14 of those were from District 6. So here’s a summary:
Previous pcts reporting: 288, or 65.8%
Now reporting, 313, or 71.5%
Miller’s previous percentage of the vote: 51.71%
Miller’s new percentage of the vote: 51.83%
Miller’s new margin: 3140 votes