With some 40,000 votes still to be counted, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) now holds an 814-vote lead over Sen. Ted Stevens (R), the Anchorage Daily News reports. Begich trailed Stevens by about 3,000 votes yesterday, until the state counted 60,000 absentee, early and questioned votes.

From the Daily News:

Stevens is trying to become the first person ever elected to the U.S. Senate after a being found guilty of felony crimes. A Washington, D.C., jury found him guilty a week before the election of lying about gifts on his financial disclosure forms.

The state still needs to count at least 15,000 questioned ballots and an estimated 25,000 absentees. With all the absentee votes coming in, this will be one of the biggest turnouts, if not the biggest in terms of ballots cast, the state has ever seen. That's despite questions in the media and on blogs about why turnout appeared low on Election Day.

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