Posted on 11/11/2010 3:34:25 PM PST by mdittmar
Joe Miller, the Tea Party-backed Republican nominee for Alaska Senate, may be on the cusp of losing the Senate race to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who ran as a write-in candidate after losing the GOP primary to Miller.
There were more write-in votes than there were votes for Miller, and the vast majority of those ballots seem to have been cast for Murkowski. Miller chosen to address this by challenging votes that appear to have been for Murkowski even when there is only the smallest of justifications for doing so.
Consider: According to the Associated Press, an observer for Miller today challenged a vote that seemed to be for Murkowski because even though her name was spelled and printed correctly, the "L" in Lisa was written in cursive. (Or just have a look at the challenged ballot pictured above.)
Other challenges have been for sloppy handwriting or tiny misspellings - "Lisa Merkowski," for example. While it would seem to be obvious that a write-in for "Lisa Merkowski" is a vote for Murkowski, Miller doesn't want it counted.
Alaska officials have said they will take into account voter intent when considering the ballots - which presumably means that the "Merkowski" vote would go to Murkowski. But Miller's legal team argues that state law does not allow such an interpretation: If the name on a write-in ballot does not exactly match the name of the candidate, they say, it doesn't count.
The legal question will be settled next week, when Miller's legal challenge to the state's position will be heard in court. (Miller already filed suit to stop the count altogether, but a judge turned him down.) If Miller's camp can successfully challenge enough ballots to overcome Murkowski's apparent lead - and the courts decide that their interpretation of the law is correct - he will become a senator.
The issue isn't just a legal one, however. Should Miller triumph by disqualifying a large number of ballots despite clear voter intent, he will have essentially have "won" an election in which he was not the candidate for whom Alaskans tried to cast the most votes.
Alaska officials say they want to count votes for Murkowski that are less than perfect because it means not disenfranchising Alaskans simply for sloppiness or spelling errors. For Miller, however, what the voters meant appears to be less of a concern than finding a way to Washington.
Is CBS trying to disenfranchise voters? You betcha!
You don’t have to tell me Miller lost this fight with the voters, and even before the count. Otherwise “write in” wouldn’t have more voters than Miller.
If the voter didn't care enough to spell the name correctly, why should Alaskans waste their tax dollars to count them?
Think you ought to review what deals Murk made with the dems, unions, and indigenous people of Alaska before anyone cries foul on Miller.
And where her money came from.
She won big with the Moocher vote. Alostka will soon run out of OPM.
The new Alaskan motto...Theres Gold in them there Bills.
I was away for a while. I was going to answer you but, after reading the other answers and your broken record protestations, I realize it would be useless.
None of my English teachers ever gave me credit for “intent” on spelling.
I think the problem with voter intent is the voter is no longer the person deciding how there vote will be cast. If I as a voter fill out my ballot according to whatever law covers my election, I have decided who gets my vote. On the other had, if I don’t fill it out correctly and the standard is “voter intent” someone other than me is deciding who gets my vote. I then have to ask, who are the ones disenfranchising voters. Those that want the vote to be clear and unambiguous, or those that want to decide for the voter.
Is her last name Murcowsky?
No more than my last name is Pelleteer.
The law is the law, and it says nothing about "human eyes" or some mystical divination of voter intent.
Are you being a liberal on purpose ?
I believe you left out the conjunction and the clause that follows it.
Or perhaps, like the leftists, you believe that the RTKABA depnds on a 'well regulated militia' ?
You are after all, using the same deceptive focus on the part of the whole that suits you.
Nor does it definitively address a necessary level of exactitude.
I dislike Murkowski very much but in the closing days of the campaign, Miller got owned that is reality, whether fair or foul. Losing to a write in? His campaign crumbled.
Hope he wins the recount.
Yes.
Three or four actual reasonable people on this thread, amidst an amazing display of Party over Principle.
Joe never had a chance. I said so here 2 weeks before election day when that boneheaded poll-freeping and cover-up incdent came to light. Miller inexplicably tried to get a judge to block the release of that info, instead of just releasing it himself right after the primary so it would have been long forgotten by voting day. So instead it was released just when he could afford it least—and it decimated him. We saw a 22-pt crash in 3 days in our snap poll after the release, and knew then it was done (Lisa’s deft exploitation of loose rules for Natives was too much to overcome in the end). If Miller wants to be viable to challenge Begich for re-election, he should try and end this useless fight quickly.
Does it really mention spelling?
That depends on the meaning of the phrase “as it appears on the write-in declaration of candidacy.”
IMHO, the “appearance” of the name is the issue. DOes it appear to be Myrcowscee?
The legislation should have stated that spelling is mandatory in plane terms. That way, the interpretation of the law is less open to question.
Does anyone know what the legislative debate history says on this statute?
No CBS news, the LAW says it doesn't.
OTOH What else would anyone expect from the FORGERY STATION? Obviously they have no respect for law or honesty or what's right!
No CBS news, the LAW says it doesn't.
OTOH What else would anyone expect from the FORGERY STATION? Obviously they have no respect for law or honesty or what's right!
(11) A vote for a write-in candidate, ...
shall be counted ...
if the name,
as it appears,
on the write-in declaration of candidacy,
of the candidate or the last name of the candidate
is written in the space provided.
Sorry about the double post. Let’s make CBS sorry enough they tried this propaganda political attack that the Forgery Station will think twice about their next propaganda attack on the right!
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