AP reports that Mark Begich has defeated Ted Stevens in the AK Senate race.

Tuesday’s tally of just over 24,000 absentee and other ballots gave Begich 146,286, or 47.56 percent, to 143,912, or 46.76 percent, for Stevens.

A recount is possible.

So much for all the speculation about scenarios in which Gov. Palin gets to pick his replacement or run for that seat herself. Absentee voting tipped the tally to Begich.

In other late election news, Norm Coleman is holding on to a 215-vote lead in MN. Al Franken’s campaign was not able to find produce forge enough extra votes to avoid having the first total certified in Coleman’s favor.

Norm Coleman will be certified the winner of the contest for Minnesota’s Senate seat by the state Canvassing Board today. Yesterday the Franken campaign asked the board not to certify the result until certain rejected absentee ballots are included in the final count. The board rejected the Franken campaign’s motion to include the rejected absentee ballots or to delay certification.

What was the thinking of the Franken campaign in bringing its motion to prevent certification of the result? The Franken campaign apparently wants to reduce the risk that any Minnesota newspaper will run a headline reporting that Senator Coleman won the election.

Coleman’s margin of victory over Franken in the certification is expected to increase today by nine votes, from 206 to 215 votes. The Star Tribune reports that the nine additional votes derive from “a post-election audit conducted in a sampling of about 200 precincts to check the accuracy of voting machines.”

The mandatory recount there should take several weeks.

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