Alaska Senate Election Dispute – Here Come Da Judge!
This afternoon, Ralph R. Beistline, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, provided a partial victory for GOP/TP U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller in his bid to yet unseat incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, despite trailing her by more than 10,000 votes.
Responding to Mr. Miller’s post-election request for a preliminary injunction to require Alaska election officials to count write-in votes for Murkowski in strict compliance with state law, for example, no write-in misspellings of Murkowski’s name permitted. While not rejecting Miller’s federal constitutional claims, Judge Beistline ruled that this controversy is a matter for state court consideration:
“The issue now is who should properly determine the answer to this question, the Federal Court or the State Court? And the answer appears clear to the undersigned. This is a State-wide election, conducted under State law, involving State candidates and impacting State citizens. The Courts of the State of Alaska are in the best position, at least initially, to apply Alaska law and to determine who won this election.”
In a tactical win for Miller, though, Judge Beistline declared that the Division of Elections may not certify the election results if Mr. Miller files suit in state court by Monday, November 22. According to the Anchorage Daily News. “Beistline’s unusual action was intended to ‘ensure that these serious state law issues are resolved prior to certification of the election.'” The court order is here, courtesy of Election Law Blog.
For more background, see these posts.
