Alaska GOP candidate wants to stop votes from being counted

[Meadmaker]

While this is physically possible, I'm pretty sure there is no legal basis for a hand count.

ETA: And aside from that, I don't think there's much (if any) evidence that the optical scanners aren't reliable. In this race anyway, the result isn't even close enough to warrant the expense of any kind of recount.

The elections division has said that the margin of victory was greater than that which required a recount, so any recount would have to be at the candidate's expense. Sadly, there are probably people willing to contribute to that cause, but I don't think it will happen.

 

[Kestrel]

While this is physically possible, I'm pretty sure there is no legal basis for a hand count.

ETA: And aside from that, I don't think there's much (if any) evidence that the optical scanners aren't reliable. In this race anyway, the result isn't even close enough to warrant the expense of any kind of recount.

Alaska law may assume the optical scanners are perfect, but that doesn't change the fact that they do misread a small fraction of ballots. In this race it wouldn't matter as the margin of victory appears to be well over typical optical scan error rates.

Like many other states, Alaska learned the wrong lesson from the Florida recount. The problem wasn't counting ballots by hand, but a badly written law that required the county election commission to examine every challenged ballot. If Florida law had allowed that task to be delegated, the recounts could have been completed in a few days.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Alaska law may assume the optical scanners are perfect, but that doesn't change the fact that they do misread a small fraction of ballots. In this race it wouldn't matter as the margin of victory appears to be well over typical optical scan error rates.

Yep. I think Alaska law only grants a (state-funded) recount if the results are within half a percent. Remember, the total votes cast were only around 200,000, IIRC. It would have to have been much closer than it was.

And I don't think there is any provision for a hand-count, but I suspect you could probably get one if it were really that close and a recount with the scanner gave you a different result. I think that would require a lawsuit and a court ordered hand count, though, but I don't think that would be difficult to get based on the idea of the voter's intention.

 

[MattusMaximus]

Has Miller joined reality and conceded defeat yet?

 

[leftysergeant]

Maybe this can be used to get the teabaggers to rally against electronic voting machines of any sort. Maybe the country would get some good out of the morons for a change.

Of course, the corporate sponsors of the TP movement would have a conniption fit.

I think most states do allow a hand-count of a challenged election if the complaining party posts bond to pay for it.

In a contested election here in Washington, the Democrats came up with the bond and handed Dino Rossi his head and got their money back.

No reason the GOP or the baggers couldn't do the same in Alaska.

Or maybe they don't care enough.

That might say something about how much support the snivelling little teatard actually had in his race. Clearly, most of Alaska, even the Republicans, wanted somebody else.

 

[varwoche]

Has Miller joined reality and conceded defeat yet?

Nope, and that's fine with me. I enjoy seeing this nitwit sputter, twitch and gurgle through the death throes.

 

[hgc]

I don't think we're quite in agreement here. I claim that Murkowski is fully in the Republican fold -- not in the least a Democrat, and that the ever sniveling Lieberman straddles the fence while still enjoying a committee chairmanship courtesy of his patsy Democratic colleagues.

Interestingly, Murkowski has voted in the lame duck session with Dems and against her leadership on DREAM Act, START Treaty and DADT Repeal.

I'm holding to my assumption that she is well within the embrace of her party, but it's looking just a tiny bit shaky. If she is meted committee assignment according to seniority, then the tale will be told.

 

[Alferd_Packer]

Joe Miller has formally lifted his opposition to the Alaskan vote being certified.

 

[Spindrift]

Joe Miller has formally lifted his opposition to the Alaskan vote being certified.

How much money does he have left from all the donations he got to wage this futile effort?

 

[BenBurch]

How much money does he have left from all the donations he got to wage this futile effort?

And does AK election law allow you to keep unused campaign funds as personal money?

 

[varwoche]

Joe Miller has formally lifted his opposition to the Alaskan vote being certified.

Yes but don't despair -- all is not lost:

Miller also asked for an extension of the deadlines to attempt to overturn Murkowski's victory "to include exhaustion of all direct appeals to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court."