As of now, the leader in the Alaska Senate race is the generic “write in” vote. With 40% of the votes, the “write in” share of the ballots is 5% above Joe Miller. We’re still calling it the generic “write in” vote because those ballots haven’t even been opened yet, so although everyone presumes that most if not all of them are for Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent Senator who was beat in the primary by Tea Party favorite and Palin endorsee Miller, every official election return is still listing it under the generic term.
Starting tomorrow, those ballots will be unsealed and tabulated, but Miller isn’t taking any chances. In a preemptive move, Joe Miller has filed in federal court, seeking an injunction and declaratory relief. In his complaint, Miller says that the Director of the Division of Elections is unilaterally changing the rules by adopting a subjective test to determine the intent of the voter, rather than requiring an accurate spelling of the name as required under state law.
A pdf of the complaint can be found here.
