After the election, it appeared that Carolyn was behind by a small margin. Now that the usual collection of ballots not included in the official results, notably those coming in from overseas voters, have been counted, we hear that she is leading by 18 votes! Yes, every vote counts.

There will be a hearing 12/1 to determine which provisional ballots will be counted. Often, those ballots (in the rare cases that they are counted) favor Democrats.

So it is almost time to be optimistic!

This will all have a feeling of déjà vu for those who remember Barb McIlvaine Smith’s narrow victory under similar circumstances in 2006.