Joe Miller can win AK Senate Race Today (Vanity)

November 9, 2010 | no dems

[no dems]

The count of the AK Senate Race Absentee Ballots takes place today. Currently, the total Write-in votes exceed Joe Miller's total vote count by 13,500 votes. There are 31,000 Absentee Ballots to be counted today. Absentee Ballots, which contain many military votes, normally go heavily Republican. Lisa Murkowski's name was not on the Absentee Ballot and the people who vote Absentee very seldom do the "Write-in" thing. If they do, it, many times, is not done correctly. So.......

If Joe Miller's lead, after the count of the Absentee Ballots, exceeds the 81,000 Write-in Ballots, which did not all go for Lisa anyway, turn out the lights; the party's over.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I’d already be filing suit if I was miller — because the law clearly states a write-in has to have the full name of the candidate as listed in their write-in registration.

So the #3 ballots which just have “Murkowski” should not count, because her registered name was “Lisa Murkowski”.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The law clearly states that a write-in for a candidate that is on the ballot counts as a vote for the candidate.

So it bothers me that their sorting includes putting “confused” ballots in box #1, but doesn’t have that box being counted to see about Miller votes.

My guess is they will get back to that box if Murkowski pulls ahead.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I will note that write-ins are also going up pretty quickly, showing that contrary to the expectations of some people here, there are a lot of write-ins in the absentee ballots.

Still, it’s good to see Miller making up some ground before they start counting write-ins.

[ConservativeTeen]

Not to mention, her father Frank is a former Senator/Governor. Perhaps someone writing in Murkowski “intended” to vote for her father. Not that it really matters since writing in only a last name is clearly not an acceptable write-in vote.

[ltc8k6]

11,557 now...

[txhurl]

I was quoting no dems’ appraisal, if you look.

[no dems]

Write-ins to Miller will be thrown out, so they will not help Miller directly, but they won’t be counted for Murkowski of course.

That's been changed. The Lt. Governor now says they WILL be counted.

[no dems]

Miller did not file as a write-in candidate, which is required in Alaska. In Alaska, you cannot just write in any name and have it count. You can only write in the name of a valid write-in candidate that has filed as such.

Yes, he did. His name and Party Affiliation are on the List. Have you read the list?

[ltc8k6]

Yep, and it says write-in next to Murkowski and nothing next to Miller. It’s a list of all of the candidates, not just the write-ins.

[ltc8k6]

http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_genr.php#uss

[ltc8k6]

Strange, the law seems pretty clear that they shouldn’t be, but I guess we’ll see.

[txhurl]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2624637/posts?page=5

Miller sues to force exact spelling rule for write-in votes

[EDINVA]

Official statement of Lt Gov Campbell here

http://ltgov.alaska.gov/campbell/lieutenant-governor/full-press-release.html?pr=130

[tongass kid]

This is an interesting move on his part. This is the guy that has shouted in Alaska and the national press that state rights must prevail. So now he runs off to the federal court to sue the State of Alaska. Sure makes him look like a hyocrite or is that hiocrite or hyckrite? So Joe now wants to make it a Federal Spelling Bee. Alaskans are good at remembering these things. Who ever is running his campaign is acting like they never want him to win an election in the future.

[no dems]

Military Ballots from overseas will not be counted in Alaska until November 17th.

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/fate-of-alaska-race-hinges-on-write-in-1033374.html

[ltc8k6]

All of the docs I can find online at the Alaska Elections site still seem to say there can’t be any write-in votes for Miller as far as I can tell.

Perhaps it’s word games and any write-in for Miller will not be “cast properly”...

[nerdgirl]

Unfortunately as a Miller volunteer here on the ground in Anchorage who waved quite a few signs for the guy...I have to agree that the numbers are very tough. To get even a huge number of those absentees - let’s say 60% - which is not that likely - that’s just 18,000, and you have to subtract the ones she’ll get - which even at 25% would be 7750 or so.

Then it would require many thousands of the write ins to be bogus - and even if some are for donald duck, and some are misspelled or for other people - you have to realize that Murkowski issued 50,000 BRACELETS for people to wear into the voting booths. The Native corps most likely also called the head of every single village and gave them explicit instructions of how to make sure each person’s write in vote would count. Do you realize in the bush 1 person can write in the votes for everyone else, as long as they have their consent? Also, they had the ability to just walk into the polling place and say “please write in Murkowski for me”.

She won because of the bush, plain and simple.

Now I certainly hope Joe pulls a rabbit out of a hat here - after all, the guy still owes me a cool photo op with my 2 toddlers :)

[txhurl]

Military Ballots from overseas will not be counted in Alaska until November 17th.

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That needs its own thread, too! damn

[no dems]

Then let’s do it. I’ll do it now.

[ltc8k6]

11,333 now...