Miller: Hand-Count All Ballots

Joe Miller's campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto last night issued a statement regarding the AK State Superior Court ruling on his vote count lawsuit.

"The purpose of the legal action is to ensure that the integrity of the vote is upheld. The Miller Campaign believes that every valid write-in ballot should be counted, but not those that fail to meet the standard established by the state legislature. Additionally, the core American values of equal protection under the law and fundamental fairness in this election require that the Miller ballots are counted and reviewed in the same fashion as Lisa Murkowski's, by hand, and that the count includes only those who are eligible to vote. When we've ensured that these issues have been addressed, then we'll have an accurate count, and if Lisa Murkowski's tally is greater than Joe's, then he will certainly honor that result."

Synopsis of Alaska Superior Court Ruling

Miller lost the case on all counts. See: Complete Transcript of Alaska Superior Court Ruling: Miller v. Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, and Alaska DOE.

The court ruled (contrary to Miller's statement above) that the nature of write-in ballots requires a hand-counting procedure when a single write-in candidate has what appears to be the majority of the votes. Miller's name was on machine ballots and votes for him were tallied according to procedures for those ballots. His name also appeared on some write-in ballots and those were counted by hand.

The judge ruled that his interpretation of Alaska's electoral statute was too strict. He also ruled that Murkowski's interpretation of the same statute was too broad. Her motion to have ballots counted that did not have the oval filled in next to her name was denied. The judge ruled that the matter of spelling was moot, because even with the challenged ballots tossed, the incumbent still won by over 2,000 votes. A ruling for or against Miller on spelling of candidate's name does not change the outcome of the election.

The court dismissed Miller's claims of voter fraud as unsubstantiated.

The Anchorage Daily News (ADN) variously reported that Miller has until close of court business on Monday or Tuesday December 13 - 14 to appeal the case to Alaska's Supreme Court, a decision he has not announced as yet.

The state is also asking the federal court to lift its injunction against certifying the election, now that the Superior Court has issued its ruling, so that Murkowski will be seated in the 2011 Congress.