Counting of write-in ballots underway in Alaska Senate election ["phonetic understanding?"]

LA Times ^ | 11/10/2010 | Kim Murphy

[SeattleBruce]

Reporting from Juneau, Alaska — The tedious scrutinizing of the more than 92,500 write-in ballots cast in the U.S. Senate race in Alaska got underway in a chilly warehouse Wednesday, with observers for Republican Joe Miller's campaign determined to challenge any variation in the spelling of rival Lisa Murkowski's name.

And judging from the multiple derivations voters attempted — Lisa Muroski, LSI Murkswke, Lisa Mvrowski, Lesa Merkesken, Lisa M., along with at least one ballot cast for Jesus Christ — there will be no shortage of opportunities for argument.

"We expect to have a recount. We expect it may go to court," Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell told reporters. "I believe the counters are doing a legitimate job of trying to determine the intent … and if it's then challenged in court, the court may be the final arbiter."

--snip--

"The law is pretty clear that it has to be filled in just as it is on the declaration of candidacy," said Randy DeSoto, Miller's spokesman. "Our concern is the Legislature, when they made the law, wanted to get away from all this confusion by making it very clear."

State officials have said they are relying on at least two court decisions that require them to determine what a voter's intent was. If it's apparent that a voter intended to vote for Murkowski, even if there is a minor misspelling, Division of Elections chief Gail Fenumiai said she was counting it as a valid vote.

"If I can't make a phonetic understanding of the name, I say no," she said.

[trappedincanuckistan]

Anyone been over to DU to see if they’re actually pulling for the cow?

[Godebert]

"We are losing our principals and principals differentiate us from the others. If we have free elections and the citizens of our constitutional republic make a bad choice we should honor it and not look for sneaky ways to avoid the result. Why not put ourselves above the low lifes and not use the god damn courts to try to steal an election that Murkowski appears to have won fairly."

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[trappedincanuckistan]

How do you know someone didn’t write “Murkowsky” as a protest vote knowing it wouldn’t be counted?

[carton253]

You are right. If the people of Alaska can effect a change in the law to allow “close enough” spellings to count, then fine. But not this election. The standard has been set.

[shield]

Wonder what todays count looks like?

[mcjordansc]

Look, I wanted Joe Miller to win, but it is Murkowski’s right to run as a write in candidate. It is obvious that she got more votes in the election. We can be disappointed, but to say the election is being stolen is simply not accurate.

[txhurl]

We can be disappointed, but to say the election is being stolen is simply not accurate.

---

Murk got a do-over, simple as that. When surprised by the Tea Party Candidate’s surge, she had to call a time-out in order to rally the natives who didn’t EVEN VOTE IN THE PRIMARY, reminding them of how Evil Joe was going to smoke all their entitlements.

[Friendofgeorge]

We are in agreement!

[SeattleBruce]

“How do you know someone didn’t write “Murkowsky” as a protest vote knowing it wouldn’t be counted?”

Or testing to see if Alaska would uphold clear election law.

[SeattleBruce]

Results in from last night suggest murk is holding steady at about 89.8% uncontested votes in the write-in - again, this will put them in virtually a dead heat if Miller gains nothing more (and I think he will as he already has) among absentees and military votes (due on 11/17). Let’s say he builds up a 5,000 vote cushion between himself and murk’s uncontested votes - then they’ll scream and yell about the contested/counted votes for another two months...
http://www.elections.alaska.gov/results/10GENR/data/resultsWI.htm

[SeattleBruce]

Hey shield - there’s also this string today about Miller’s Facebook post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2626026/posts

[SeattleBruce]

Here’s another update:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2626026/posts?page=44#44
IMPORTANT INFO FOLKS: (Thanks to a posting by Freeper deport.)

13,766 Overseas Military Ballots were transmitted in 2008.

Hopefully at least half that many were transmitted in 2010 and they go heavily for Joe. PRAY!!!

[shield]

Thanks.....those military men love Joe so let us hope as many went out this year as last...to cover Joe Miller.

[shield]

The numbers tonight are showing a 90.16% for Murky after todays counting. 62,434 write in votes and 314 precincts counted of the 438 precincts.

[SeattleBruce]

Miller's at 87,000+ votes now - if murk gets 90% uncontested she's at around 88,500, then there's the military votes. I've been saying for days that this isn't over. Some people are speculating that there are 10,000 military votes - what if Miller out polls murk by 2 or 3K there - then he'd just need about 60% of his challenged votes to hold up in court to win.

Slim, but fighting chance - that's my assessment.

[SeattleBruce]

http://www.elections.alaska.gov/results/10GENR/data/results.htm

Oh, Miller’s down by less than 4.5% to write-in (with overall counts). Basically that means that between military and challenges he needs to make up that gap of around 8 to 9,000 votes. Mebbe he gains 3,000 at most out of a total of 10,000 military votes (?), so he’ll need to make up the other, say 5,000+ votes in the challenges.

There are currently around 5300 out of 69,000 write in votes that are ‘challenged’ but counted for murk. Given AK election law, it will all come down to how it is interpreted - and this will possibly/probably go to the SCOTUS, perhaps depending on Miller’s inclination.

He’s a fighter - no more Mr. Rossi nice guy. (Too bad for Dino, by the way, but the fight for him was lost in 2004. If he’d fought those felony votes, he would have been a popular governor of WA ST., imho.)

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

She should not have been allowed to run again after being defeated, especially after saying she would not!

The law is the law and she had every right to run as a write in but why would she be considered a serious candidate? Why would people vote for her?

It sounds somewhat suspicious that these votes are all legitimate as write-ins are usually never successful.

[SeattleBruce]

“Basically that means that between military and challenges he needs to make up that gap of around 8 to 9,000 votes.”

I should add that with the additional absentees Miller made up some percentage - about a quarter % or half % off of “write-in”s lead. So Sen. write-in will be up by say 4% on 190,000 total votes (7,600) before the military votes are cast. Let’s just say the military votes peel off another 2,500 or so votes - and Miller needs to prevail on approx. 5,100 of his challenged votes (will they uphold clear AK election law??)

[SeattleBruce]

At least Miller is making up ground, at this point, and not losing ground. His has been a valiant effort - despite the protestations on this board from some. I can't believe people want him to give up when he'll be down by quite a bit less than the number of disputed votes when the count is done.

Thanks for fighting Joe. We appreciate it and are behind you!

[shield]

With this election year, I wouldn’t be surprised if as many military absentees were sent out as in 2008. So we’ll just have to see how many are back and hoping the military is as pro Miller as we’ve read.