Alaska Starts Counting Write-In Votes For Senate Seat

[Dulcinea]

Alaska election officials are scheduled Wednesday to start counting more than 92,000 write-in votes cast in the Senate race between Republicans Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller, the GOP nominee.

The count is due to go forward despite a federal lawsuit filed by Miller, the Tea Party movement-backed candidate, who wants to stop state officials from counting any ballots in which a candidate's name (read Murkowski's) is misspelled. (The scintillating ballot counting will be webcast on 360north.org starting at 9 am Alaska time.)

State officials have indicated they would give voters some leeway on the spelling. Their instructions for how write-in votes are to be counted tell counters to set aside votes where Murkowski's name is misspelled so that officials can later determine voter intent.

After Miller shocked Murkowski by winning the GOP primary, Murkowski launched a write-in candidacy that many experts considered quixotic since Strom Thurmond in 1954 was the last write-in winner.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/11/10/131210632/alaska-starts-counting-murkowski-miller-write-in-votes

[valerief]

1. Candidate will start changing their last names to "X" to make write-in

voting easier for teabaggers.