Alaska Supreme Court reverses ban on write-in candidate lists

LA Times ^ | 10/27/10 | Kim Murphy

[freespirited]

Hours after a judge blocked the Alaska Division of Elections' effort to give voters lists of write-in candidates, the state Supreme Court stayed his ruling, providing a boost for the campaign of incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

The lists can be shown to voters who request them, the high court ruled, but candidates' party affiliation must be removed.

The court also directed the Division of Elections to attempt to segregate absentee ballots cast by voters who have seen the lists -- an apparent preparation for legal fights over whether those ballots can be counted. The court ordered briefs by Thursday on whether its stay should be permanent.

The issue is crucial for Murkowski, who launched a write-in campaign to keep her seat after Tea Party Express-backed candidate

Joe Miller defeated her in the August Republican primary.

Earlier in the day, Superior Court Judge Frank A. Pfiffner rejected the state's argument that providing a list of certified write-in candidates to voters who ask for help complies with the state's obligation to aid citizens who need assistance casting ballots.

[freespirited]

First Toricelli, now Princess Lisa.

[Crichton]

The other article posted is more accurate, both in title and content.

Not surprising, considering the LA Times.

[JohnBovenmyer]

They DIDN'T reverse it, at least not yet. They stayed it pending review, with the briefs supposed to be in by 3pm Thursday. Sanity is still possible although I'd rather they just turned down Murky's appeal without comment.

This is a very strange case in that you have a RINO, a type that begs for bipartisanship being opposed by True Bipartisanship. The AK Rats filed the case and the AK GOP joined it. When is the last time you recall the Rats and the GOP on the same side of an election case?!!

[convertedtoreason]

This is exactly the proof that Sarah Palin was not “palinized by the Democrats” in 2008-2009. She palinized by both Democrats and Establishment Republicans. And Miller is currently experiencing “palinization”.

Oops. Palin’s palinization didn’t stop in 2009. It still continues even today. Her most recent palinizer is Karl Rove.

Palinization: Throwing all accusations, doubts, allegations, cheap shots, and all the dirty tricks to politically murder a person.

[11th_VA]

What would happen if a no name Alaskan named Lisa Mukulski (or some derivation thereof) thru her hat in the ring. How would the election officials chose who the voters really wanted to vote for if name wasn’t spelled correctly? And could she get her name on the list?

[denydenydeny]

What possible merit can this case have? Black-letter Alaska law specifically forbids this kind of polling-place electioneering.

[Maurice Tift]

  A real list of write-in candidates would have to include everyone legally qualified to be an Alaska senator. Collecting every phone book in Alaska would be a start, but it still wouldn't be enough since a lot of people are unlisted and then you would have to remove the teen telephones.

[Liberty Valance]

Kinky Friedman is gonna love this one ...

[stylin19a]

now you're thinking like a RAT. The Repubs aren't smart or unethical enough to front another lisa mukulski

[brickdds]

Kinky Friedman is a buffoon. Anyone paying heed to what this self-serving moron says is misguided. He stated that if obama were elected, things would be just fine. Hows that workin’ for ya kinky?

[Liberty Valance]

Like i said, Kinky’s gonna love this one. Alaska might start a trend.

[chuckles]

Don't know about Alaska, but in Texas we can't bring crib notes into the voting booth. I would think a Federal election would warrant the same rules everywhere.

Once we had about 12 different propositions to vote on and I tried to bring a pad in with "yes, no, yes, yes, no, no, no, yes" in to the booth and they threw a fit. Many of the props were similar but had different outcomes. I had to study them for a while to see which were worded to raise my taxes and which weren't. Many were just give away's to cronies.

[Islander7]

Black-letter Alaska law specifically forbids this kind of polling-place electioneering.

The law means whatever a judge wants it to mean. Didn't you get the memo?

[cherry]

ANYBODY is a potential write in candidate....how can providing "lists" be legal?...well it would be legal is every single person in the world's name was on it, but then that takes away a voters choice to write in "Mickey Mouse" etc....

Come on Joe.....defeat this evil witch..

[Kellis91789]

I don’t think any of this is going to matter. I predict Murkowski is going to be embarrassed big time. She will receive less than 10% of the vote.

[VeniVidiVici]

Shouldn’t they include the New York City phone book? Sounds like a good challenge to me :-)

[EQAndyBuzz]

I would just post signs outside of every poll station with Liza Murcowski’s name on it.

As a side note, for those voters in Philly, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, San Francisco and Seattle, Remember to vote on November 3.

[drubyfive]

Kinky is a self-described A-hole from El Paso.

[Ole Okie]

The law means whatever a judge wants it to mean. Didn't you get the memo?

On another thread, I noted that the appeals judge would find shadows and penumbras in the plain English regulation barring write-in lists.

To be honest though, this looks more like a thuggish bulldozing of the regulation rather than an aery-faery shadow and/or penumbra and/or halo around the regulation.

[11th Commandment]

What Miller should do is get 100 hacks to put their name in as a write in candidate all with the last name A - L. Then make sure the list is in alphabetical order.