Miller Loses Court Challenge, Will Likely Appeal

On Friday a judge ruled against Republican Joe Miller’s lawsuit challenging how Alaska counted write-in votes in the Senate race against rival Lisa Murkowski. The ruling is yet another setback for the tea-party backed candidate’s legal challenge to the outcome of that race that declared Murkowski the winner.

It is all but certain that Miller will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Judge William Carey stayed execution of the order until Tuesday, which gives Miller plenty of time to appeal.

The ruling also further solidified Murkowski’s historic victory as a write-in candidate after failing to secure her party’s nomination. The winner is supposed to be sworn in on January 5, but given Miller’s reluctance to accept the will of the people there is no guarantee that his legal challenges will be resolved by that time.

Miller had asked the court to strictly enforce a state law that calls for write-in ballots to have the oval filled in and either the candidate’s last name or the name as it appears on the declaration of candidacy written in. However, Alaska case law allows for ballots with misspellings to be counted toward the total.

Miller had promised to concede if the math worked against him. Apparently it does, but so far Miller doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Unofficial results show Murkowski ahead by over 10,000 votes and still leading by over 2,000 votes even when all the challenged votes are removed.

Read more: alaska, joe miller, lisa murkowski, politics, recount

photo courtesy of zieak via Flickr

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John V.

2:11PM PST on Dec 27, 2010

hey! we don't want him in miami.

send a green star

Thomas M.

7:34PM PST on Dec 16, 2010

Take a LONG vacation, Miller, in Miami or maybe the South Pole.

Tom S.

4:38PM PST on Dec 16, 2010

His teabag tore

ML E.

11:14AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

The man is a knucklehead. How did he manage to get on the ballot in the first place? Oh, yes, I forgot, Tea Party. SIGH!

Mary A.

9:02AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

Very sour grapes. He needs to except what the voter has said. They do not want him.

Sylvia B.

8:33AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

to KM H.: Thanks for posting the info. I sent a message to Mr. Miller.

Alexandra R.

7:39AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

All i can say is "deedums!"

Mike and Janis B.

6:44AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

Is sanity returning to Alaska then, though they did vote for that Palin creature in the past?

RHONDA N.

6:03AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

Great news to start my week!

KM H.

5:33AM PST on Dec 13, 2010

Correction of my previous comment: if you go to Miller's website, there is a space for sending e-comments even though they don't give his email address. Here is the link to his website:

http://joemiller.us/contact-us/