Alaska’s U.S. Senate Race Vote Count: If Only Lisa Murkowski Had Been Named Lisa Jones.
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| Look, I’ve told you plenty times, there’s two “L’s” in Miller!! |
The Name Game. The write-in vote counters in Alaska’s election central wish Lisa Murkowski had an easier name to spell, and so did the voters last Tuesday, and so, quite possibly, does incumbent Senator Murkowski, now fighting for her senate career against GOP-Tea Partier Joe Miller. Joe Miller, though, is quite content with the tough spelling, and likely wishes his opponent’s surname were even more difficult to spell, something like “Murkowskicznoziak.”
Just Call Me Lisa. HuffPo reports that the Miller (R-TP) camp’s write-in count observers are hewing to the letter of the state law, and bending over backwards to do so. Here’s some examples from HuffPo’s story:
“Shortly after the second day of write-in ballot counting began, a Miller observer challenged a vote for Murkowski that appeared to have her name spelled and printed correctly, though the “L” in “Lisa” was in cursive handwriting.
Her damn name’s about this long! At another table later, at least 10 ballots in which Murkowski’s name appeared readable were challenged, including one in which the vote read: ‘Lisa Murkowski Republican.’
Miller’s campaign said observers are simply challenging votes that don’t meet the strict letter of the law – including those with minor misspellings of Murkowski’s name or those with legibility or penmanship issues.”
And the Alaska Dispatch reported:
“A bunch of the ballots in the ‘challenged’ pile are there because Miller observers objected to Murkowski’s name being written with an overly loopy ‘u,’ or written in with an ‘r’ in cursive in an otherwise printed Murkowski.”
Also checking in, the Anchorage Daily News revealed:
“[Division of Elections Director Gail] Fenumiai overruled the Miller campaign’s challenges on ballots like those spelled ‘Merkowski,’ ‘Murkowsky,’ and ‘Murcowski.’
[ . . .]
Miller campaign observers successfully challenged only 1.44 percent of the 19,203 ballots counted on Wednesday. Fenumiai agreed with challenges by the Miller campaign of ballots like ‘McCosky,’ ‘Misskowski’ and ‘Morcowski.'”
How Do U Spel “I Lost”? Mr Miller has cause to worry. The reports are that Senator Murkowski has received a8% of the write-in votes as of yesterday afternoon. . .
(For background on the write-in vote brouhaha, and the Alaska Senate race in general, see my posts here.)
