Missouri remains a blotch of gray on the blue-red electoral map nearly two weeks after the election. The Politico reports that the numbers suggest the state is likely to wind up in McCain's column:
With John McCain leading Barack Obama there by fewer than 5,000 votes with thousands of provisional ballots yet to be counted, election-watchers have been reluctant to toss the battleground into either candidate's column, and it will still be days before the outcome is finally resolved.
Hanging in the balance along with Missouri's 11 electoral votes is the state's reputation as a national bellwether — Missourians have voted for the winner in every presidential election since 1904, except for 1956.
"It looks like we're going to have about 6,300 [provisional ballots] that are going to be reviewed statewide," said Laura Egerdal, a spokeswoman for the Missouri secretary of state, adding that about 2,000 of those ballots will come from heavily Democratic St. Louis County.
Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that Obama would have to win about 80% of the outstanding ballots to turn the state blue. Highly unlikely. No official results until December 9 though.
