Judge rules against Miller challenge in Alaska Senate race

A state judge in Alaska has ruled against Tea Party-backed Republican Joe Miller’s legal challenge to the legitimacy of thousands of write-in ballots counted for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). 

No immediate word on the next step for Miller, but the Republican is widely expected to appeal his case to the state Supreme Court, further prolonging the legal battle.  

Judge William Carey said Friday that Miller has until Tuesday to appeal. 

Miller’s lawsuit claims the state applied a faulty and arbitrary “voter intent” standard to the counting of write-in ballots, and wants thousands of ballots thrown out due to improper spelling of Murkowski’s name and other irregularities. 

Murkowski was declared the winner last month but the state is legally barred from certifying the results, thanks to an order from a federal judge. She leads Miller by more than 10,000 votes — even if all of the write-in ballots challenged by Miller were to be thrown out by a judge, he would still have no clear path to victory. 

The Anchorage Daily News breaks down the judge’s decision count by count. In his ruling, the judge focused on the meaning of the word “appears” in the statute in question. 

“The definition of ‘appears’ in this context does not require perfection or precision, but rather a close, apparent approximation known to the viewer upon first look. This seems to the court the far more reasonable interpretation of the term than the rigid meaning attributed to it by (Miller),” he wrote in the ruling.

Earlier Friday, the state of Alaska asked a federal judge to lift a temporary injunction preventing state elections officials from certifying the results of the Senate contest if Miller doesn’t appeal to the state Supreme Court by Monday morning. 

Lawyers for the state filed the motion Friday morning, well before the state court’s decision on Miller’s ballot challenge suit came down. 

“Mr. Miller’s conduct of the state litigation suggests that he is strongly motivated to delay a final determination of the election result,” acting state Attorney General Richard Svobodny wrote in the motion.

—Updated at 7:51 p.m.