Make Them Take it Away

Daily Kos has a DSCC press release:

Both Jon Tester and Jim Webb have won their races in Montana and Virginia but want to make sure that every vote is counted. We expect to have official results soon but can happily declare today that Democrats have taken the majority in the U.S. Senate.

Montana Vote Situation: Jon Tester leads Conrad Burns by approximately 1,700 votes (as of 11am EDT) and counting. In Silver Bow County (Butte), a Democratic stronghold, votes are still being counted but Tester is winning there with 66% of the vote. We expect to gain the majority of these uncounted votes and to add to Tester's margin.

Montana Process: When the counting phase is completed, a canvass will verify the vote tallies. That process could take as long as 48 hours, and must begin within three days and end within seven. Unless the canvass shows the margin to be within ¼ of 1%, there is no recount. As the loser, Burns would have to request the recount. When the votes are all counted, we expect to be outside that recount margin.

Virginia Vote Situation: Jim Webb is up by approximately 8,000 votes and once the provisional ballots are counted, we expect Webb's margin to increase. (Please note that VA absentees were included in the tallies from last night.)

Virginia Process: A canvass is underway to verify the results and we expect that process to finish within a day or so. To be in recount, the margin needs to be less than 1% and Allen (as the loser) would have to request it. Because of Virginia voting laws, the margin would have to be much tighter than it currently is to see any change in the outcome. Given the current margins, that is highly, highly unlikely.

Credit to the DSCC for handling this correctly. When the votes show that you're winning, declare victory and make the opposition try to take it away from the less powerful position of having fewer votes.

It would be better to put the candidates on TV and have them say something along the lines of "there are still votes coming in but I'm confident that the people of Virginia/Montana have chosen a new direction for America," but this will do.

In another time when Democrats were less confident (4 or 5 months ago) this sort of press release wouldn't have come out. Dems would have been concerned about 'looking dumb/over-confindent/elitist/liberal/pro-terrorist or whatever. Democrats were scared for so long that they became scared to do anything because it might backfire.

It's nice to see they've move (a little bit) past this.

It may take a month for their claims to be validated, but it's good that Tester and Webb have claimed victory.

2006 Election Jim Webb Jon Tester Recounts