Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
The Lieutenant Governor announced yesterday that he’s moving up the date for beginning to examine write-in ballots from Tuesday’s election. There were far more write-in ballots for U.S. Senate than for either Democrat Scott McAdams or Republican Joe Miller. Lisa Murkowski is presuming that her name is on most of those write-in ballots, and yesterday told reporters that it looked as if efforts by her campaign and the independent campaign set up by the Native corporations to make sure her supporters filed legal votes had worked.
A great many absentee ballots – tens of thousands – still remain to be counted. The examination of the write-ins will begin on Nov. 9. Murkowski announced the creation of an Alaska Voter Protection Fund, a legal defense fund that will pay for the defense of the challenges expected to come after the vote count.
Murkowski’s team of lawyer will be headed by Tim McKeever, and Ben Ginsburg, a top Republican election attorney, will join the effort.
It’s not yet clear who the legal team for Joe Miller will be.
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