Live Feed of Alaska Write-in Count (Mispellings common)

http://www.360north.org/livefeed.php ^ | 11/10/2010 | None

[rumrunner]

Joe Miller is contesting at least 10% of all write-in ballots. Misspellings tend to be in the first syllable of Lisa Murkowski's name- some wrote "Mercowski" or "Mircowski."

Live feed: Live Feed

News on the mispellings from Anchorage Daily news:

News on mispellings

[butterdezillion]

lol.

Or Hawaii...

[Red Steel]

I believe that issue has already been resolved.

Miller’s write in votes will be counted.

Good. Obviously, Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell was pulling that one out his rear end.

Butter, I don't think Miller has to have his name on the "list" to be a write-in candidate since his name is already on the ballot.

[butterdezillion]

Yeah, that’s what my long, convoluted post was supposed to mean. lol. I like the way you said it better; even I can understand what you said. lol

[Domandred]

Miller isn’t a write-in candidate

Actually he is both on the ballot and valid write-in. His write in candidacy was accepted and on the official list of valid write-in candidates.

My understanding is that's the only reason Miller's write-in votes count.

If he had not done that, or if it was rejected because already on the ballot (wasn't), then write-ins for Miller would not be counted.

[Jrabbit]

She handed out rubber bracelets with her name on it...for voters to take in the voting booth with them...so, they could spell her name correctly. She DEFINITELY knew/knows the law. That’s why she did it. Which caused another problem. Voters wearing her bracelet inside the voting places had to turn them to the inside of the wrist. The COW just keeps pushing and I pray she is stopped.

[CharlesWayneCT]

What if they were deliberately miss-spelling her name as a protest vote against her running as a write-in?

Some people announced their intention to do so — how do you know that you aren’t stealing their protest vote if you give it to Lisa?

How could people who actually wanted Lisa miss-spell her name, when it is on the write-in sheet they could ask to see, and when she had it on commercials every day, and handed out wristbands with the name?

Alaska makes it hard for write-in candidates, because they want to support the primary system. They make the write-ins register the name they want to use, and then make people vote using that name.

[Red Steel]

Yeah, I’ve now seen and read your post #100. :-)

[butterdezillion]

Somebody said he wasn’t on the write-in list. That’s what I get for not checking, huh? lol. Now I have to go find the list so I can see for myself.

If he’s on the list it’s a moot issue, but I think point 5 would say the vote counts as long as the oval is filled in and point 9 (if that’s the right one) says it wouldn’t be disqualified just because it’s for somebody already printed on the ballot.

If it was misspelled it wouldn’t be a vote for a name already printed on the ballot (since it didn’t match any name on the ballot) so then it would have to match the name of a write-in candidate on the list.

But if he’s on the write-in list it’s sort of like arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. lol.

BTW, thanks for posting the statute. That saves a lot of searching and helps keep things clear.

[crazyshrink]

Just checked the Anchorage Alaska phone directory:

3 Murkowsky’s (including Lisa A.)

3 Murkowski’s (including Lisa A., same addy as above))

intersting..............

[RoseofTexas]

YOU HIT IT ON THE NAIL!! Correctomondo...The judge ruled that Moocowsky COULD indeed have her name along with those other write ins on a separate sheet...so IF they still didn't get it right when they wrote her name that vote SHOULD be invalid and there is where AK law should prevail with the vote count!! SIMPLE...right?!

[CharlesWayneCT]

And yet we have Al Franken as Senator for the next 4 years, and his constituents don’t seem to really care how he got there.

If the Alaska voters want to change their law, they can do so at any time. And if they hate the results, they can vote Miller out at the next election.

[carton253]

I took in a list of judges too. No one tried to stop me.

[butterdezillion]

Yep, you’re right. Miller is on the list at http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_genr.php

So we don’t need to worry about any “what if”.

Boy, that sure makes the Lt Gov look bad though - that he was ever going to throw out write-ins for Miller when the law is so clear that a write-in vote can’t be disqualified just because it’s for somebody aready listed on the ballot. There’s no way he could have just misunderstood that.

[CharlesWayneCT]

No, he is not on the write-in list. His write-in votes count because the Alaska law clearly states that write-in votes for candidates who are on the ballot are counted.

The idea is that you can only vote for people who are properly registered candidates. People on the ballot are obviously properly registered, as are people who applied to be write-in candidates.

The lt Governor was wrong to claim they wouldn’t count, but it showed his bias against following the law. He has corrected himself, now the courts need to correct him on his “intent of the voter” nonsense.

If a voter misspelled her name, the simplest explanation is that the voter INTENDED to write the name the way they wrote it, knowing that it would not be a vote.

To assume that the voter MEANT to write her name is to call the voters stupid, and to count those votes is a violation of Alaska law.

[butterdezillion]

My condolences. lol. I re-read it and it was confusing even to me. Sorry to put you through that (even if you are a beloved techno-nerd. lol) Yours was much better.

Turns out we don’t need to worry about it anyway because Miller is on the write-in candidate list. lol

[butterdezillion]

But he is on the list at http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_genr.php

[BOBWADE]

anyone know the channel for directv?

[CharlesWayneCT]

That is the real problem with “intent”. We know that people write-in all sorts of people. And in Alaska, those write-ins aren’t counted unless the name they write in happens to be a registered name.

But you have to assume a lot to assume that a person writing a legal name that didn’t happen to register must have REALLY meant to write a different name that DID happen to register.

At which point you have to ask, which name on the official list did they really mean to write? Do we assume they only slightly misspelled the name, or maybe they completely misspelled the name and they meant a different candidate altogether...

Or maybe they were voting for their friend down the street, Lisa A Murkowsky.

[CharlesWayneCT]

That’s not the write-in list, that’s the complete list of valid candidates. It includes both ballot candidates AND write-in candidates.

[IMissPresidentReagan]

The "law of the land" is as follows:

(10) In order to vote for a write-in candidate, the voter must write in the candidate's name in the space provided and fill in the oval opposite the candidate's name in accordance with (1) of this subsection.

(11) A vote for a write-in candidate, other than a write-in vote for governor and lieutenant governor, shall be counted if the oval is filled in for that candidate and 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.

(12)(b) The rules set out in this section are mandatory and there are no exceptions to them. A ballot may not be counted unless marked in compliance with these rules.

The law sets forth an OBJECTIVE standard for measuring votes, while the Murkowski campaign wants to institute the SUBJECTIVE standard of voter intent. The law was clear - PRIOR TO VOTES BEING CAST - as to what the requirements are for a proper vote. If you meet those requirements, then you voted; if not, then you wasted everyone's time. Let's say, hypothetically, I went in and wrote in "Stupid MukyCowski wench" with the intent to MOCK her write in campaign or the intent to protest losers running as a write-in. Now, while that is probably not one of the more intelligent moves I could make, my INTENT as the VOTER was to not have my vote counted for Murkowski, but to mock her; however, under the guidelines that the Murkowski campaign wants, my individual intent would be ignored because a third party has decided that my intent was to vote for Murkowski. There is a reason the law sets forth an objective standard and that standard, which was in place well before Murky even thought about throwing her hissy fit campaign, should be followed. How is some third party going to be able to divine what any one person was thinking when they wrote whatever they wrote down.

As a side note, remember both Murkowski and her daddy were and have been huge political figures in Alaska. People should know how to spell their names, especially if the commercials there were as bad as they were here in Kentucky. :) If they still didn't know how to spell her name, or they had questions, the voter could have asked for assistance. If they chose not to avail themselves of those options, then I can't pretend to presume to know what anyone's "intent" was when they voted. Voter "intent" is a creation of liberals to relax standards to that if someone scribbles F U LMercowsky on a ballot - then that should count as Murkowski.