Secretary of State Matt Blunt, Missouri’s election authority, has certified the results of the November 5th vote – making the outcome official. This clears the way for Jim Talent to take over as Missouri’s junior U.S. Senator, replacing Senator Jean Carnahan who went down to defeat at the polls. According to Blunt, 50,9 percent of Missouri’s registered voters participated in the election, compared to the last mid-term election in 1998 when 43 percent of registered voters went to the polls. Missouri used provisional ballots, this year, for the first time. Blunt says 3,603 provisional ballots were cast. 2,007 of those ballots were accepted and added to the total vote count.
