Joe Miller's sour grapes

[Dalton]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40282004/ns/politics/

JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska federal judge ruled Friday that Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller's challenge to the counting of write-in ballots raises "serious" legal issues but is a matter for a state, not federal, court to decide.

Yet in deferring to an Alaska state court for a final decision, U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline said he would grant a temporary injunction to halt official certification of the Nov. 2 election — an action Miller is seeking — so long as Miller takes his case to the state court by Monday. Miller told The Associated Press late Friday that he intended to do so.

Beistline's unusual action was intended to "ensure that these serious state law issues are resolved prior to certification of the election," the ruling said.

Miller sued in federal court in a bid to stop the state from using discretion in determining voter intent on write-in ballots cast for his election rival, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who declared victory in the race Wednesday. She mounted the write-in campaign after losing to Miller in the GOP primary.

State law calls for write-in ballots to have the oval filled in and the candidate's last name or name as it appears on their declaration of candidacy written.

But the state pointed to case law in counting Murkowski ballots that contain misspellings or were phonetic to her name. Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, who oversees elections, has defended the practice, saying the state doesn't want to disenfranchise any voters.

Miller wants the law adhered to strictly, and asked Beistline to keep the state from certifying the election results based on a count of ballots that aren't in line with it. The target date for certifying the race is Nov. 29. A recount can then be requested by Dec. 4.

Beistline said a state court is in "the best position, at least initially, to apply Alaska law and to determine who won this election."

But he also said he'd "remain available to review any constitutional issues that may exist once the state remedies have been exhausted."

On Friday, Miller amended his complaint, alleging among other things violations of the U.S. Constitution's Elections Clause and equal protection. The complaint said the state's procedure of hand-reviewing write-in ballots to determine voter intent — but not ballots for other candidates, which went through automatic machines — "gave a substantial advantage" to write-in candidates like Murkowski.

Miller's spokesman said Miller wants a hand count but after a court rules on the standard by which ballots should be judged.

An attorney for the state, Margaret Paton-Walsh, said she's glad the matter was referred to state court, "where it belongs." She said she's confident Miller's reading of the law will be rejected if he files a case.

Miller, who's been urged by the state GOP to concede, said he looks forward to the court's interpretation.

"It is critical that these issues be resolved not only for this election, but for future ones in Alaska, as well," he said. "We are a nation of laws, and the law concerning this could not be clearer. We need the state law applied consistently to all ballots cast."

Miller declined to say how far he would take his case if he lost in state court.

Murkowski declared victory in the race Wednesday, as the final several hundred ballots were tabulated. With those ballots sorted by hand Friday, to determine the names written on them, Murkowski held a 10,328 vote lead. She had 101,088 votes to Miller's 90,760. Miller's figure includes 20 write-in votes for him.

Murkowski's total includes 8,159 ballots contested by Miller observers. Excluding those, she had a 2,169-vote lead.

Miller said "the lack of a clear and consistent standard" raises serious questions in his mind about the veracity of those numbers. His campaign also has been going through voter rolls to try to match the number of people signed up to vote with votes cast in certain precincts to ensure there was no voter fraud or other irregularities.

A Miller observer said Friday morning that the two matched pretty closely in logs combed through so far.

Miller said he knew of no calls besides those from the state GOP and Murkowski camp for him to concede. He continues raising money for his legal defense fund, calling fundraising efforts so far "adequate."

South Carolina Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund also has reported raising more than $151,000 for what it calls a "Joe Miller Recount Fund."

Murkowski campaign manager Kevin Sweeney said Murkowski won, and he doesn't know what Miller could gain by pursuing the issue. He said Murkowski is "already back at work and focused on representing all Alaskans for the next six years."

Joe Miller, Tea Party Republican, is totally against big government, except when he wants them to step in and call the election in his favor. Also, he really "cares" what the people of Alaska really want (him), even if they don't know it. A model statesman.

[Stofsk]

I saw Lise Murkowski on PBS and she seemed like a genuine, sincere sort of lady and was talking about cooperation and compromise and working together with Democrats. It sounds like if anyone deserves it she does.

[D.Turtle]

Murkowski declared victory in the race Wednesday, as the final several hundred ballots were tabulated. With those ballots sorted by hand Friday, to determine the names written on them, Murkowski held a 10,328 vote lead. She had 101,088 votes to Miller's 90,760. Miller's figure includes 20 write-in votes for him.

Murkowski's total includes 8,159 ballots contested by Miller observers. Excluding those, she had a 2,169-vote lead.

Those are the important parts. Even if every single ballot challenged by Miller's team is discounted, Murkowski still wins. His challenge simply can't change the results of the election, even if everything goes his way.

[SCRawl]

Murkowski declared victory in the race Wednesday, as the final several hundred ballots were tabulated. With those ballots sorted by hand Friday, to determine the names written on them, Murkowski held a 10,328 vote lead. She had 101,088 votes to Miller's 90,760. Miller's figure includes 20 write-in votes for him.

Murkowski's total includes 8,159 ballots contested by Miller observers. Excluding those, she had a 2,169-vote lead.

Those are the important parts. Even if every single ballot challenged by Miller's team is discounted, Murkowski still wins. His challenge simply can't change the results of the election, even if everything goes his way.

You missed one more salient bit:

Miller said "the lack of a clear and consistent standard" raises serious questions in his mind about the veracity of those numbers. His campaign also has been going through voter rolls to try to match the number of people signed up to vote with votes cast in certain precincts to ensure there was no voter fraud or other irregularities.

At least, that's the fig leaf for his ability to proceed. He really needs to just fuck off and get a real job again, but at least he has the (onion skin) veneer of an argument.

[General Zod]

Miller said "the lack of a clear and consistent standard" raises serious questions in his mind about the veracity of those numbers. His campaign also has been going through voter rolls to try to match the number of people signed up to vote with votes cast in certain precincts to ensure there was no voter fraud or other irregularities.

At least, that's the fig leaf for his ability to proceed. He really needs to just fuck off and get a real job again, but at least he has the (onion skin) veneer of an argument.

The problem is teabaggers have been whining about voter fraud for months. So far none of their screechings or intimidation tactics have proven to have any merit.

[Gil Hamilton]

I saw Lise Murkowski on PBS and she seemed like a genuine, sincere sort of lady and was talking about cooperation and compromise and working together with Democrats. It sounds like if anyone deserves it she does.

That's why that wanted her out. Senator Murkowski is a moderate. She's a republican, like many politicians in Alaska, but a lower case "r" one. For one thing, she's pro-choice and pro-state health care, the latter due to the fact that Alaskans pay ALOT more in health care as a general rule than the average in the United States and while people make more on average than most states there, they don't make THAT much more. She's also very popular as I understand it, which combined with not being super-conservative is a sin to the Tea Party.

That's why Joe Miller has his nipples twisted over this. He was supposed to have been coronated by the Tea Party into a senate seat, but a soft-R republican so-and-so woman managed to beat him anyway in a write-in campaign, which is damn near unthinkable. He's probably experiencing shrinkage in a way that has nothing to do with the climate over this.

[D.Turtle]

You missed one more salient bit:

At least, that's the fig leaf for his ability to proceed. He really needs to just fuck off and get a real job again, but at least he has the (onion skin) veneer of an argument.

Not really. Every ballot with a write-in candidate has to be hand-checked. There are observers of Miller's team during this hand-check. If they see anything that could theoretically invalidate the ballot (such as unclear writing, misspelling, etc.), then his observer contests the validity of the ballot, and it goes into a separate pile. It is in the interest of Miller's team to challenge as many ballots as possible (even if its for silly reasons like wrong capitalization). Despite this, his observers have not found enough ballots with such (possible) mistakes to have him in the lead on validated votes.

Thats why his argument is completely irrelevant: There are more votes that are completely, unquestionably, undeniably write-in votes for Murkowski than there are votes for Miller. The lawsuit can only have an effect on how the 8159 contested ballots are counted. Even if they are all thrown out, Miller still loses.

I'm guessing that the judge allowed the lawsuit to continue in order to have a precedent for the future if there ever should be an election where the interpretation of these rules could change the outcome of that election. However, the lawsuit simply cannot change the results of this election - it will only delay the certification of Murkowski as the winner. Thats why what I quoted is (for this election) the only important part.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Wierd nutty comments on this nutso case

1. suprised no one at blizzard allowed a Murloc to gain a position of power in the hoard (red state after all) as a result of a write in campaign.

2. he failed by a ton of votes, even given all of the ones his people hand challanged, there were still another 8k votes more for her as a write in....

3. his only chance is to pull a Bush v. Gore and have ALL write in vallots discounted...

[Broken]

It seems to me that lately (going back to the Clinton years, if my memory serves) the more wing-nutty people on the Right have a hard time accepting the fact that they lost an election. It's always voter fraud, a mistake, a conspiracy by the "elites" that fear them that keeps them out of office. They seem so wrapped up in their "Real American" self-image that the idea that they could be outnumbered by not-real americans in their home/state/country seems to blow their mind leading to an inability to process the fact that a goodly chuck of the country just plain doesn't agree with them.

[Thanas]

While not disagreeing with you, I just like to point out that the Democrats use a lot of procedural tricks when it comes to this too, especially in high-profile stuff like Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Pure tribal party politics.

[TimothyC]

A reminder to everyone - Miller is probably pissed because he beat Murkowski in the primary election earlier this year, only instead of stepping aside and backing party unity (which is the usual course of action), or at the least not saying anything, she ran a write-in campaign.

Christ tried the same thing (as Murkowski) in Florida only it didn't work out for him. Senator Lieberman's reelection in 2006 is another example of this happening (Lieberman lost to Lamont in the primary, but won in the general).

[Dalton]

A reminder to everyone - Miller is probably pissed because he beat Murkowski in the primary election earlier this year, only instead of stepping aside and backing party unity (which is the usual course of action), or at the least not saying anything, she ran a write-in campaign.

Christ tried the same thing (as Murkowski) in Florida only it didn't work out for him. Senator Lieberman's reelection in 2006 is another example of this happening (Lieberman lost to Lamont in the primary, but won in the general).

It's Crist, and it's not the same: Crist ran as an Independent and was actually on the ballot. Murkowski had a much tougher time being a write-in candidate with a difficult last name. Joe Miller's vitriol is more likely a combination of sour grapes bitterness at Murkowski refusing to endorse him as well as incredulity at being defeated by a write-in candidate (not to mention having no way mathematically to win). And Sarah Palin is too busy clubbing halibut to bail him out.