Posted on 11/16/2010 2:56:45 PM PST by Qbert
Princess Lisa now leads by about 1,700 votes after Monday's review. There are still about 8,000 write-in ballots and 600 absentees to be counted. It's not looking good given that the Division of Elections is counting 97% of the write-ins for Murkowski, despite the fact that thousands of the ballots do not spell her name correctly, a requirement in the actual law.
Via the Anchorage Daily News:
The Division of Elections has now counted 92,164 votes for Murkowski and 90,458 for Miller. Murkowski's number will grow as the state continues to go through write-in ballots today, looking to see what name voters wrote on them.
[...]
"It's hard for me to figure that they would be able to look at these numbers and come up with any reasonable move other than facing the fact that Lisa Murkowski won the election," Sweeney said.
The Miller campaign insists that's not the case. Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto said he still thinks the court challenge could get enough votes thrown out for Miller to win.
The review of write-in ballots began last Wednesday and should essentially finish in the next day or so. The Murkowski campaign's numbers show another 10,000 write-ins remain to be counted. It predicts that Murkowski is going to end up with a total exceeding 100,000 votes given the trend of the count.
That could give Murkowski a lead over Miller in the 10,000-vote range once the counting is over.
Miller ballot observers so far have challenged 7,601 of the votes the state has counted for Murkowski. Miller has filed a lawsuit asking the federal courts to throw out the challenged ballots that are misspelled or otherwise not written perfectly.
But some of the ballots that Miller observers challenged were clearly spelled right and looked to be filled in correctly. So it's likely that not all the challenged ballots would be tossed, even if Miller ended up winning the lawsuit.
Miller spokesman DeSoto, though, said the race is still in play. He said he believes Miller and Murkowski will end up with about the same total of votes, if you subtract the votes Miller challenged but the Division of Elections counted.
Miller argues that state law doesn't allow misspelled votes. But the state and the Murkowski campaign say Alaska courts have indicated in the past that if "voter intent" can be determined from the ballot -- such as if a slight misspelling still produced a name that sounded like "Murkowski" -- that should be the standard.
Miller has said he would drop the fight if it was obvious he couldn't win. But his campaign said Monday that time hasn't arrived.
"At the end of six days of ballot counting, the race between Joe Miller and Lisa Murkowski is still very close," DeSoto said.
How many overseas military ballots have yet to be counted?
I now know better.
Lisa Murkowski may become an usurper of a Senator.
I hope Joe Miller drags her through another month of recounts, wear her down mentally. The liberal left of Alaska thinks it has more power than the rest of the state.
I cannot predict the future but I suspect some very tense times in the near future.
I would say the lesson learned in Alaska is if you are unhappy with Senator Lisa...it’s best to avoid the Republican primary and vote long and hard for the Democrat running. I’d give up on the state mechanism working and just settle for the lesser of evils.
At this point let em have her. She will not get any earmarks to pay off her moocher voters. Ha! Welchkowski. They will turn on her like Lampreys with no fish around.
We have a continuation of the corrupt behavior in connection with the results of the Republican primary. The Republicans are no better than the Democrats when it comes to obeying the law. Laws are for the little people not the elite Republicans or Democrats. Disgusting!
We have a country built on "guidelines" not laws, whether it be immigration laws, primary results, or counting write-in ballots. Where is our country headed?
cheating.
the ruling class doesn’t care about the law, when the law gets in the way of their continuing to rule us.
The vote counters must be getting writer’s cramp.
Might be fun to do a little kick to Lisa next go round. We run one of “ours” for the Democrat nomination and let Little Lisa have the Republican nomination. Come general election time, everyone votes for the Dem, (we do and those clowns who vote for anyone with a “D” after their name), and he/she wins and Lisa’s out in the cold. Our candidate immediately switches parties. Would love to see Little Lisa’s hissy fit.
Oh really, Cow? Then why did you put so much effort into having a list of write-ins available or having your voters wear wrist bands with your name spelled on it correctly?
As Alaskans re-elect a liberal Republican promising pork, the losers will be them. Because there will be more federal strings attached and a further erosion of state sovereignty. The new energy projects that Palin ushered in will get killed while the crony capitalism among the oil companies and politicians will start over.
Obviously she can chose either side to caucus with, and will probably try to set off a bidding war on her “loyalty.” Since the Dems want her as insurance for keeping control, they'd probably offer something. You would expect the Republicans to offer her something, hoping that a couple of defections might occur and give them control.
I wish that before this “process” even begins, the Republicans would simply say, “no thanks, we don't want you.” And do it publicly. Now, knowing that the Republicans don't want her, the Dems have no reason to offer her anything. Leave her with no choice committee assignments, the chairperson of nothing, a complete nobody.
Fitting poetic justice for her and the idiots that elected her.
Very sad when a person stoops to the level Lisa Murjowski has.
Challenge every vote, even if that Oval is not filled in 100% completely.
Good thoughts; except she has no loyality. She is a nothing and everyone knows it.
“Challenge every vote, even if that Oval is not filled in 100% completely.”
Good point.
“We have a country built on “guidelines” not laws, whether it be immigration laws, primary results, or counting write-in ballots. Where is our country headed?”
The result of political correctness and moral relativism, and a people who are so spiritually weak they can see their own destruction.
It looks like the fat lady is not going to sing any time soon. Probably going to be a long court battle?
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