Joe Miller, the Alaska GOP senate candidate, filed a lawsuit in Alaska Federal court on Tuesday morning to prevent election officials from counting any misspelled write-in votes.
Miller hired attorney Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage lawyer who has worked for Sarah Palin. The lawsuit called for a hearing to be held Wednesday.
According to Talking Points Memo, “the lawsuit argues that many people who cast misspelled write-in ballots might have done so deliberately, as a protest against Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign. If elections officials deem these misspelled ballots as votes for Murkowski, it ‘overrides voter intent’ and ‘nullifies the protest and falsely inflates the vote for the write-in candidate,’ argues the suit.”
Alaska officials started counting write-in votes Wednesday. With some absentee votes still to be counted, so far Miller garnered more than 81,000 votes, trailing total write-in votes by more than 11,000.
Write-in votes total more than 92,000. That number includes those for incumbent senator Lisa Murkowski and other write-in candidates. Now these votes will be separated and counted by write-in candidate.
Official instructions are to separate those spelled correctly from those spelled incorrectly. Those spelled incorrectly will then be reviewed to determine if intent is clear. Observers for the candidates will be present and can challenge decisions about a voter’s intent.
Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, who oversees Alaska elections, said that if voter intent is clear minor misspellings of Murkowski’s name will be accepted, according to Mother Jones.
“The courts have been very clear for the last 25 years that voter intent is important,” Campbell said in an interview this week with KENI radio host Mike Porcaro, reported Mother Jones. “You do not want to disenfranchise voters over a technicality.
Miller hired attorney Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage lawyer who has worked for Sarah Palin. The lawsuit called for a hearing to be held Wednesday.
According to Talking Points Memo, “the lawsuit argues that many people who cast misspelled write-in ballots might have done so deliberately, as a protest against Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign. If elections officials deem these misspelled ballots as votes for Murkowski, it ‘overrides voter intent’ and ‘nullifies the protest and falsely inflates the vote for the write-in candidate,’ argues the suit.”
Alaska officials started counting write-in votes Wednesday. With some absentee votes still to be counted, so far Miller garnered more than 81,000 votes, trailing total write-in votes by more than 11,000.
Write-in votes total more than 92,000. That number includes those for incumbent senator Lisa Murkowski and other write-in candidates. Now these votes will be separated and counted by write-in candidate.
Official instructions are to separate those spelled correctly from those spelled incorrectly. Those spelled incorrectly will then be reviewed to determine if intent is clear. Observers for the candidates will be present and can challenge decisions about a voter’s intent.
Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, who oversees Alaska elections, said that if voter intent is clear minor misspellings of Murkowski’s name will be accepted, according to Mother Jones.
“The courts have been very clear for the last 25 years that voter intent is important,” Campbell said in an interview this week with KENI radio host Mike Porcaro, reported Mother Jones. “You do not want to disenfranchise voters over a technicality.
