Well Past Election Day, Nine Races Still Up in the Air

Election Day came and went more than a week ago, but some candidates are lawyering up for seven nail-biter House races and two statewide races that have yet to be called. Democrats are defending all seven of the contested House seats, but only leading in two of the races. AEHQ breaks down the undecided races:

California's 11th: Election workers are poised to begin counting some 30,000 absentee ballots in the race between Democratic incumbent Rep. Jerry McNerney and Republican David Harmer - while 8,000 provisional ballots still to be tallied. McNerney is leading Republican opponent David Harmer by a razor's edge of 47.8 to 47.3 percent in what by many accounts is a slightly Republican-leaning district.

California's 20th: Officials in this Central Valley district are slated to certify results Nov. 30th in the race between Democratic Rep. Jim Costa and Republican challenger Andy Vidak. On Monday, Vidak was leading Costa 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent.

Illinois' 8th: Republican Joe Walsh has already declared victory, but the vote tally is still trickling in - and absentee ballots have benefited Democrat Melissa Bean, who is trailing Walsh by a slim margin of about 350 votes. The deadline to file absentee ballots will hit Nov. 16.

Kentucky's 6th: Democratic incumbent Ben Chandler is leading Republican challenger Andy Barr by around 650 votes, but Barr has asked the Bluegrass State to re-canvass votes, a process expected to be completed by Nov. 12th.

New York's 1st: Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop appeared to have a 3,400-vote lead on Nov. 2, but the Suffolk County Board of Elections' review of reporting errors resulted in a 383-vote lead for Altschuler. Absentee ballots to the tune of 10,000 have yet to be factored in, and Bishop's campaign says because the race is so close, all ballots should be recounted. Lawyers from both camps met with a judge Tuesday to discuss a re-count - but no deal was announced.

New York's 25th: With both sides lawyering up, the ballot battle between Democratic Rep. Dan Maffei and Republican Ann Marie Buerkle could stretch past late November, when the last military and overseas ballots are due. A judge ruled Monday that both campaigns can inspect absentee ballot applications. By the latest count, Buerkle is leading Maffei by more than 680 votes.

Texas' 27th: Democratic Rep. Solomon Ortiz is asking for a re-count in his South Texas race against Republican Blake Farenthold, who was beating Ortiz by 799 votes following the election, according to the secretary of state's office, and has already declared victory. The 73-year old Ortiz had held his seat for close to three decades.

Minnesota governor: Democrat Mark Dayton is leading Republican Tom Emmer, but a state canvassing board is slated to meet Nov. 23 to decide whether Minnesota is in for its second statewide recount in three years, which could drag the race out into December or later. Election night results were called into question after voting machines registered thousands of phantom votes for Dayton.

Alaska Senate: It's a busy week for Alaska election workers. Having started counting absentee and early-cast ballots Tuesday, they will count write-ins Wednesday and questioned ballots Friday. Votes for Republican nominee Miller Tuesday were lagging behind write-in votes by 11,333, but it is yet to be seen how many write-in ballots were cast for incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who ran a write-in campaign after losing the Republican nomination to the Tea Party's Miller. Miller sued Tuesday to keep the state from using discretion to determine voter intent on write-in ballots.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.