Miller's Spelling Campaign

Republican Joe Miller, the Republican that won the Alaskan Senatorial primary, is suing in federal court to prevent the counting of any write-in ballots in which a candidate's name is not spelled correctly. Obviously, this takes aim at write-in candidate, sore loser, incumbent Lisa Murkowski. Apparently, the campaign is hoping to have a hearing on the matter as soon as possible.

Alaska's election law states that write-in ballots must be marked with a filled-in oval and with the desired candidate's last name or the name as it appears on the declaration of candidacy. But as election officials deliberated how to move forward when Murkowski announced her independent bid to become Alaska's first successful statewide candidate, they said they would use "discretion," as well as work with a state attorney, to determine how to count votes that might misspell Murkowski's name. 

How exactly will the court decipher the more than 85,000 write-in votes cast? I suppose a common sense approach would hold as even though Murkowski was only one of about 150 write-in candidates, it is unlikely another write-in candidate shares a similar name. 

At last count, the write-in ballots held a 5.5 point advantage over Miller, with absentee and early votes from Juneau, Nome and Fairbanks left to be counted. Like many other races, this is to be continued...