No winners yet in Senate races in Alaska, Washington - USA Today

The new Senate will remain under the control of a slimmer Democratic majority. That much is known.However, it could take days — or weeks — to call winners in at least two unresolved races in Alaska and Washington.

In Colorado, with about 97% of the vote counted, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet declared victory Wednesday over Republican challenger Ken Buck, who did not immediately concede.

"We are still looking where returns need to be reported, as well as provisional ballots before making any decisions," Buck said in a written statement Wednesday.

Despite Bennet's apparent victory, the GOP picked up at least six seats that will give Republicans at least 47 seats in the 100-member body, as the as the nation awaits the results of the undecided contests.

The most complex of the undecided races is in Alaska, where state officials Wednesday are just beginning to review thousands of ballots cast as part of an unusual write-in campaign waged by incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski against Tea Party-supported candidate Joe Miller.

Although the 41% write-in vote so far exceeds the 34% for Miller, the state has yet to determine how many of the write-in ballots were cast in the name of Murkowski, who launched the campaign after losing the Republican primary to Miller.

Alaska Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said Wednesday that officials were "formulating" a plan to count the write-ins. She declined to say how long the count could take. Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell told the Associated Press that the actual count will begin next week in Juneau.

Miller campaign spokesman Robert Campbell said the process could likely take "a couple of weeks."

Robert Campbell said the campaign has assembled a legal team to oversee the review to "make sure all the ballots abide by the rules of the Division of Elections."

"Previous write-in campaigns in Alaska have demonstrated that as much as 5% to 6% of returned ballots have not met the standard to be counted as a valid vote," Miller said in a written statement.

"At this point, without a single write-in ballot counted, Lisa Murkowski has no claim on a victory ... In short, this campaign is not over."

Murkowski spokesman Steve Wackowski said the campaign was "encouraged" by the volume of write-in votes.

"We're very confident, but we're not declaring victory," he said.

In Washington state, incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray was holding a small lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi, but hundreds of thousands of ballots were left to be counted.

Rossi, a real-estate investor and former state senator, has twice lost races for governor.

Washington Secretary of State spokesman David Ammons said Wednesday that up to 1 million ballots may be left to count and 14,000 votes separate the two candidates.

About one-third of the outstanding votes, Ammons said, are believed to be from Seattle's King County, which traditionally favors Democrats.

"It's close," Ammons said. "I'm sure both sides are out there spinning their paths to victory. It should be clear by the end of the week."

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