(NewsCore) - Republican Joe Miller Thursday sought an injunction to stop the Alaska Senate race being certified, the Alaska Dispatch reported. Miller's opponent, fellow Republican and incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski, declared victory Wednesday night.
"Given the close vote count in the race for US Senate, I presently intend to request a recount," Miller said in an affidavit submitted in US District Court in Anchorage.
Murkowski became the first write-in candidate elected to the Senate since 1954 with a 2,247-vote margin over Miller, even without counting misspelled votes he has vowed to challenge in court.
State election officials said they had tallied 100,868 votes for Murkowski and 90,468 for Miller. Of the votes for Murkowski, Miller's camp has challenged 8,153 because of misspellings and other imperfections and could ask a judge to throw those out.
Not counting those challenged votes, Murkowski would be left with 92,715 votes, giving her the win.
Miller's campaign team spent Thursday examining voter registration logs looking for any voter fraud or irregularities, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
In the affidavit submitted Thursday afternoon, Miller said he believed the hand count of write-in votes had been conducted too early and more votes would likely have been challenged if his camp had had time to properly train observers.
"As a result, an indeterminate number of ballots with candidates' names misspelled were counted without being challenged during the first several days of counting," Miller stated.
If Miller requests a recount, it will be at his expense, under Alaska law.
Gail Fenumiai, director of the state Division of Elections, said a candidate cannot ask for a recount until after the state certifies the election, so a recount request would likely delay a certain result for weeks. She said the state generally conducts recounts by machine, not by hand, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Poster Comment:
An algore flashback.
