Joe Miller’s campaign remains optimistic that the Republican candidate can still eke out a win over Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “The difference between the ‘write-in votes’ and Joe Miller votes is about 13,000; however there are approximately 31,200 absentee ballots that have gone out and over 26,000 have been returned to date, which are still to be counted,” Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said in a statement. “Absentees broke strongly for Joe during the primary election, particularly within the military community. We also still need to know how many of the write-in votes were properly cast for Lisa Murkowski.”
The Miller campaign expects that “a significant percentage” of the write-in votes will be disqualified or will not be votes for Murkowski.
Miller campaign lawyer Thomas Van Flein has also written a letter to Gail Fenumiai, director of Alaska’s Division of Elections, requesting that the day the write-in vote count begins be pushed back. Originally, write-in ballots were slated to be counted fifteen days after the election, but Fenumiai has announced that they will now begin counting the ballots eight days after the election. Van Flein says that doesn’t give the campaign sufficient time to assemble the 40 to 60 person team they want to observe those counting the write-in votes. “The candidates are entitled to have their own observers evaluate each ballot in order to determine if they agree with the state or disagree and want a particular ballot segregated for administrative or subsequent court review,” wrote Van Flein.
In the letter, the campaign also objected to the state’s intent, according to a statement made by Alaskan lieutenant governor Craig Campbell to the Associated Press, that any write-in votes for Joe Miller would not be counted as a vote for Miller. Campbell had told the AP that only votes for registered write-in candidates — and Miller did not register as a write-in candidate — would count. Van Flein contests that understanding. “State law … provides that ‘[w]rite-in votes are not invalidated by writing in the name of a candidate whose name is printed on the ballot unless the election board determines, on the basis of other evidence, that the ballot was so marked for the purpose of identifying the ballot,” argued Van Flein (emphasis in letter). A Miller staffer said that the campaign is concerned that Campbell was trying to influence the process in Murkowksi’s favor.
The Miller campaign also objected to the location for the ballot counting (they say Anchorage would be more convenient than Juneau) and said that the Alaska should follow the law’s strict standards in determining the validity of write-in votes. “The requirement that the oval [on the ballot] be substantially complete and that the name written in matches the name on the candidate declaration form is not precatory. This statute [concerning the requirements for write-in votes] does not allow for the election board to weight ‘voter intent’ ‘voter feelings’ or ‘voter hopes,’” wrote Van Flein.
The Murkowski campaign has nabbed prominent GOP lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who advised the Bush campaign during the 2000 Florida vote count.
Sen. Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund is considering ways to help the Miller campaign, reports The Hill, while Mike Huckabee has contacted supporters, asking them to donate money needed for legal costs to the Miller campaign.