In Alaska, “write-ins” are leading, NOT Murkowski

Charles T. writes:

Here is an interesting article at Fox, “Returns Show Write-Ins Lead in Alaska.” The article begins:

“Write-in ballots held the edge in Alaska’s hotly contested Senate race—a good sign, potentially, for Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s long-shot effort to keep her job.”

However, the body of the article explains:

“With 71 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, write-ins had about 40 percent of the vote. Miller, the GOP nominee, had 35 percent and Democrat Scott McAdams had about 24 percent. Murkowski is one of 160 write-in candidates eligible for the race. The write-in count only speaks to total ballots cast for write-ins—not to names written on them.” [Emphasis mine.]

Note the plural designation of “write-ins,” which includes 160 candidates. The despicable Murkowski is one of 160 write-ins. Thus the article seems somewhat deceptive to me. While it is true that the write-ins are leading, the title and lead sentence create the false impression that Murkowski is leading. Of course, Murkowski has the name recognition. However, I think Joe Miller still has a chance to win this one.

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N. writes:

From what I can tell, the write-in vote in Alaska is a big mess because Murkowski decided to go that route rather than submit to the vote in the Republican primary. So opponents of her campaign then decided to put as many people on the write-in ballot as possible, especially those with names similar to Murkowski, in an attempt to make it more difficult for her to garner votes.

That is why there are 160 write-in candidates. It is an attempt to prevent Murkowski from succeeding in her end run around the GOP primary. I’m sure that the county authorities in Alaska are not having much fun counting all those write-ins, and it will be some days, possibly a week or more, before the vote is fully counted. If the margin between votes for Murkowski and Miller is close, a recount could be very likely, with more opportunities for error and fraud.

All of this could have been avoided if the entitled, arrogant Lisa Murkowski had accepted her loss in the GOP primary in an adult fashion.

LA replies:

How could adult, let alone minimally responsible, behavior ever be expected from a woman who accepted her father’s nomination of herself to the U.S. Senate?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 03, 2010 10:27 AM | Send