Joe Miller Files Suit To Prevent Certification Of Alaska Senate Results

Despite the fact that the outcome of the Alaska Senate race seems certain, Joe Miller continues to engage in legal tactics which seem designed to do little more than delay the inevitable:

The Republican candidate in the Alaska U.S. Senate race asked a federal judge Thursday for a preliminary injunction stopping officials from certifying the election.

An attorney for Joe Miller sought the injunction as part of a previous lawsuit challenging write-in ballots for Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent senator.

Murkowski on Wednesday declared victory in the race, the first Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign.

Miller’s lawsuit claims Alaska law requires voters to write in a candidate’s name as it appears on a declaration of candidacy, or the last name of the candidate, to cast valid ballots.

Alaska Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, who oversees the Division of Elections, has said voter intent would drive acceptance of ballots and that previous court cases had supported that policy. Elections officials have credited Murkowski with ballots that contain minor misspellings.

Murkowski has a lead of about 10,400 votes. Miller had challenged 8,153 of the ballots counted for Murkowski, but he would still be behind even if he won every challenge.

Yes, I think the appellation sore loser is more than appropriate at this point.

FILED UNDER: 2010 Election, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. anjin-san says:

    There must be an activist judge out there somewhere who will overturn the election for the tea party folks…

  2. TG Chicago says:

    I’ve been waiting for this post from OTB. Kinda was hoping it would come from Joyner, though.