Miller to Review Voting Machine Logs; Murkowski to Claim Victory

Joe Miller today reported that the Alaska Division of Elections will permit his campaign to "review precinct logs from all throughout the state." Meanwhile, according to the Anchorage Daily News (ADN), the incumbent, Sen. Lisa Murkowski is enroute to Anchorage to claim victory in the election with the announcement expected at 1730 (5:30 PM) AKST. The Associated Press officially called the race in her favor, ADN reported in the same article.

Miller: Integrity of the Vote is Vital In order to ensure the integrity of the election results, the Miller campaign has requested, and the Division of Elections has now granted, the opportunity to review some precinct logs from throughout the state. Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said, “Our campaign has sworn affidavits identifying unsecured ballot boxes, other precincts where numerous ballots appear to be in the same handwriting, others where there is 100% voter turnout and still other precincts where the ballots were sent to the Division of Elections presorted by U.S. Senate candidate. These and other irregularities give our campaign pause. Alaskans must be able to trust the results of its elections.” One important step in reviewing the results of the election is ensuring that the number of voters signed in the precinct logs on Election Day matches the number of votes being recorded from that precinct and that there is no evidence of voter fraud. Further verification of these totals will have to come from the tapes that the voting machines produce with a tally of the number of voters and the break down between candidates. So far the Division of Elections has failed to respond to the Miller request for these tapes. The Miller campaign will be conducting its review of selected precinct logs tomorrow and possibly Saturday, and will want the voting machine tapes as part of its review. The Division of Elections has also begun its required audit of random precincts from all 40 districts throughout the state. Additionally, the Murkowski write-in ballots have undergone a hand count review where spoiled ballots are being counted for her, whereas the Miller ballots have all been counted by machine with many valid ballots not being included. Joe Miller said, “After all the absentee ballots are in and we’ve further reviewed the procedures and the results, we may ask for a recount. Less than 1% of the vote now separates my and Lisa Murkowski’s total. If there is a recount and a consistent standard is applied to all the ballots, who knows what the difference would be. We need to uphold the integrity of the vote and we need a consistent standard.” ### P.S. Help us ensure a fair vote count in Alaska. Please click here to donate a gift of $100, $75, $50, or $25. Paid for by Joe Miller for US Senate Recount