It's been almost three weeks since the mid-term elections for the Congress, and there are still a handful of races that have yet to be declared official.

The closest is on Long Island in New York, where Rep. Steve Bishop (D-NY) leads by - 15 votes - yet another lesson in why every single vote is important.

Even more interesting about this race is that Bishop's Republican challenger was ahead a week ago by about 350 votes, and Randy Altschuler traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in freshmen orientation.

But when he left here on Friday, he was getting the news that his 350 vote lead had evaporated.

There are still more absentee and provisional ballots to be checked and counted in that race.

Democrats are ahead in two other races in California, in CA-11 and CA-20, where the Democratic incumbents lead by over a thousand votes.  It's not clear why the GOP challengers have yet to concede, as the votes look like they won't be going to the Republicans here.

The GOP does have the advantage in two other races that remain in limbo, in NY-25, where Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY) trails by over 500 votes and in TX-27, where Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) will get a recount starting today.

If you are scoring at home, Republicans have won 61 seats in the 2010 elections, and could pick up a few more out of these final five races.

Meanwhile, up in Alaska, even though the Senate race has swung in favor of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), that race may not be official anytime soon, as GOP nominee Joe Miller is still doing some legal gymnastics in this election.

But it seems hard to figure out how Murkowski is going to lose at this point.

So, as Thanksgiving approaches, at least three races are in real limbo - and one of them may be settled by just over a dozen votes.

It's a reminder that every vote really does count.