Murkowski, right, sitting pretty election night. Deckboss photoAlaska's incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell and longtime Congressman Don Young, both Republicans, cruised to apparent victory Tuesday night.
The numbers also looked favorable for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was forced to run as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller.
With nearly 99 percent of precincts reporting, the write-in votes stood at 81,876 or 41 percent of the total, compared to 68,288 or 34.2 percent for Miller and 47,414 or 23.7 percent for Democrat Scott McAdams.
Barring a reversal of fortune, or a successful legal challenge from Miller, Murkowski appears to have pulled off the very rare feat of winning a Senate seat as a write-in.
The conclusion reached is speculative assuming that all the 40,000 absentees will vote the same as the voters who went to the polls.
ReplyDeleteBut who are these 40,000? Mostly military service men and women who in Alaska voted for Joe Miller by a margin sufficient to give him the election if the same ration prevails in the absentee votes as existed for the districts containing air bases and forts.
Then there is the question of what constitute the intent of the write voter if the spelling is say Lesa Murcowitz. Would that count?
The Division of Elections has no clearly defined standard and that is a lawsuit waiting to happen despite the discretion they have