Senate races in three states and a handful of gubernatorial races remained close and likely destined for contested vote counts Wednesday. Tuesday’s election split Congress—Republicans took control of the House and Democrats maintained power in the Senate.

It could take weeks before a winner is named in Alaska because of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s write-in candidacy. With 99 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday, write-ins made up 41 percent of the vote. Tea Party-backed Republican Joe Miller had received 34 percent of the vote. Still, Murkowski is one of 160 write-in candidates.

Some Miller supporters reportedly wrote in his name on ballots, but Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, who oversees elections, said write-in votes for “Joe Miller” would be invalid because Miller isn’t an official write-in candidate. Campbell said he planned to ask the Division of Elections to begin determining who received write-in votes within the next few days.

In Colorado, the Senate race was uncertain for much of the day, but Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet was declared the winner this afternoon over Tea Party Republican Ken Buck. Only thousands of votes separated Bennet from Buck, who conceded the race with a message on his Facebook page: “While the final margin in the race is very small, Colorado voters have spoken.”

In Washington, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray led Republican Dino Rossi by about 14,000 votes out of 1.4 million votes cast. Washington votes almost entirely by mail, and it can take several days to receive and tally all the mailed ballots.

In Florida, Republican Rick Scott was leading by just tens of thousands of votes out of more than 5 million cast when and Democrat Alex Sink conceded the race Wednesday.

In Minnesota, Democrat Mark Dayton led Republican Tom Emmer by 9,257 votes out of more than 1.8 million cast, within the margin that triggers an automatic recount under state law.

In Vermont’s gubernatorial election Republican Brian Dubie conceded to Democrat Peter Shumlin’s 3,000-vote lead. He has said he wouldn’t pursue election in the state legislature, which is permitted under Vermont’s state law if no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote plus one vote

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For more on Senate results, see Edward Lee Pitts WORLD Web Extra “Falling short.” For more on gubernatorial results, see Jamie Dean’s WORLD Web Extra “Rust Belt glowing red.”

See WORLD’s interactive national map for complete election results from across the country.