Missouri a squeaker — McCain, for now, may have an edge
+St. Louis County election officials finally released their tally at 1 a.m. Wednesday. Then they issued a new total at 1:32 a.m.
Democrat Barack Obama – 330,157
Republican John McCain – 219,787
Obama’s 110,370 margin is a record-setting lead for a Democrat in the county, the state’s largest bloc of votes.
But it’s unclear if that is enough for Obama to squeak out a victory, thus preserving Missouri’s status as the best bellwether in the country.
A quick addition here of the county’s final, with the existing 1 a.m. statewide totals from elsewhere, initially appeared to give McCain a statewide lead of about 400 votes.
BUT, after the county’s updated tally at 1:32 p.m., it initially appeared that Obama could be up statewide by about 1,500 votes.
None of those totals include any of the rumored 4,000 provisional ballots in the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County that likely would be pro-Obama.
BUT, at 2 a.m., the state had revised its tally again, to include additional votes from Christian County.
The result: McCain had an edge of about 4,800 votes.
State GOP executive director Jared Craighead said he expected McCain’s victory to stand. He called it “a testament to the voters of Missouri.”
Expect a long battle over all those provisional ballots, especially if there are thousands more in Kansas City.
Independent Ralph Nader could once again be the scapegoat. He got 17,469 Missouri votes.


Teresa,
I get a kick out of people like you who have to put others down in order to feel good about yourself. What a sad, pitiful life you lead.