Even though write-in incumbent Lisa Murkowski is claiming victory in Alaska's Senate race, Republican tea party candidate Joe Miller is not giving up until all the absentee ballots have been counted and the write-in votes have been reviewed.
Miller is hoping his time served in the military will get him enough military absentee votes to close the 6-percentage-point gap between him and Murkowski. He also expects a number of write-in ballots to be disqualified for spelling errors in Murkowski’s name.
“The last write-in campaign was Robin Taylor’s bid for governor in 1998, and approximately 7.8 percent of those ballots were disqualified. We assume the same standard would be applied by the division of elections in this election,” Miller told Fox and Friends anchor Brian Kilmeade this morning.
According to Ben Ginsberg, a former counsel to President George W. Bush who's currently representing Murkowski, spelling may not count.
“Alaska has an intent-of-the-voter standard, so that will play out over the course of the recount,” Ginsberg said. “The object of any recount in any state is to enfranchise as many people as possible and to count all the valid votes.”
A winner in the race will probably not be announced for a few weeks as the ballots continue to come in.
Murkowski ran as a write-in after Miller defeated the incumbent in the GOP primary.
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