Posted on 11/10/2010 11:32:51 AM PST by 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:
So by default since he’s on the ballot he’s also on the write-in list? Cause he’s on it http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_genr.php
But yes even if he wasn’t on it you are correct by (a)(9)
Well, if we're not careful we all can get gulled into giving special rights to our "betters."Senator Murkowski just has to live with the fact that the law is written to favor nominees of parties over write-in candidates. Now if you can show that Ms. Murkowski herself would has ever have wanted it any other way, maybe I might have a trace amount of sympathy. But since obviously she would always have the (R) beside her name, I very seriously doubt she ever, in her wildest dreams, thought that she would want a
suckerwrite-in-candidate to have an even break.You are advocating giving this particular write-in candidate an even break, because she is an incumbent. Some of us think that incumbents should be term limited, rather than being given advantages in relection contests.
Ummm, no it isn’t. Where are you reading “intent” in the law?
Oh never mind, that’s a full candidate list including ballot, write-ins, and rejected write-ins.
(a)(9) still applies
The only miller-rejected ballot that I disagreed with of the ones mentioned so far was the one that said “Lisa, Murkowski”.
I don’t think the punctuation should matter, and even if you decide that adding a comma means the name isn’t “exactly like” the name on the write-in list, there is also the rule about the last name, and since the first name given is Lisa, there is no doubt that this is the lisa they meant, and not some other murkowski.
The article said the election official was counting any spelling if her pronunciation sounded like MUrkoswki.
But to show how absurd that standard is, she rejected MorKowski. That’s a one-letter error, and she was accepting “mer” but not “mor”, but what if people pronounce that differently?
This is why the name should have to be spelled correctly.
It’s still a shame that Miller couldn’t get 40% of the electorate to vote for him.
Jow was just on Fox...saying what most have been saying. Follow the LAW, MurCOWski!!! She knew the law when she threw her hissy fit over losing the primary. SHE decided to be a write-in. KNOWING full well that her name HAD to be spelled correctly, she ran ads explaining this and giving spelling lessons about her name. Plus, she handed out rubber bracelets with her name on it.
(Joe didn’t say all of that...just the part about following the law and how she knew the law when she decided to be a write-in.) lol
Joe...sorry
OK, now it gets confusing then. The only place on the AK Elections site where I could find any distinction between write-in candidates and party candidates was at http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ci_pg_cl_2010_genr_alpha.php and sure enough, like you said, he’s not listed as a “write-in candidate”.
Maybe it does matter how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. lol
But I didn’t see any “write-in list” anywhere on that site, so I’m not sure what list the statute is referring to.
If they do make the distinction between write-in candidates and ballot candidates, as seems to be the case on the page I linked to, then the parts of the statute which refer to “write-in candidates” wouldn’t apply to Joe Miller. Just the ones that apply to ballot candidates would apply. #5 and #9.
So maybe my meanderings did make sense after all. Somebody check the temperature of hell. lol
Clear as a bell and they’re still not following it. Sigh.
That is the complete list of candidates, including the write-ins, and the statute discusses the validly registered candidates, while the list is just the way they make that information available to you online.
There was also a list of write-in candidates this year generated to hand out at the polling places. That list was just the names of the candidates that registered as write-ins, without any other information or party information.
I haven’t seen an online version of that list.
It will be interesting and obviously very telling when we find out how many votes were clearly “not for Lisa”. The spelling and other issues may just be a mute point, tho I hope not.
This was a great election victory for conservatism in the USA. And now that so much has been “learned”, the Tea party will be even stronger in 2012.
Geez, I’m an airhead sometimes. lol. The statute doesn’t even refer to a list. It refers to the write-in candidate’s statement of candidacy.
Hmm. That maybe makes more sense, then, for them to have a list for people to see - especially for the candidates who have .... Joe “Crazy Guy” Six-pack .... as the name on their statement of candidacy.
That's not clear at all. Nobody can read the mind of an individual voter on a write in....they could have been gaming the system, they could have meant someone else, they could have been trying to screw over Murkowski because the law says it has to be spelled correctly. Nobody can really know the true intent. And when you start allowing such things it opens up a whole lot of trouble.
"I don't care who you are, that right there is funny."
The point is that the law requires the exact spelling. The solution is to change the law for future elections, not to overlook it for this one.
The principle of "Rule of Law" is FAR more important than the outcome of one race in one state during one election...
“I have been consistent from the beginning in stating that minor misspellings of a candidate’s name will be counted. That continues to be my position today and we are proceeding with the ballot count under that direction,” Campbell said. “We have a number of instances where the Alaska courts have weighed in on this issue in favor of not disenfranchising voters.”
Law??? What law?
By counting these misspelled votes, Campbell is disenfranchising voters WHO FOLLOWED THE LAW.
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