Suspense continues over contested U.S. Senate race

Well, it’s official: Suspense over November’s U.S. Senate vote will continue.

The Joe Miller campaign filled a lawsuit in state court Monday challenging the way state handled the counting of write-in votes.

The challenge centers on whether the state can legally use voter intent as the standard — as supported by case law — or whether election officials must follow the letter of the law.

State law says write-in ballots must have a filled in oval and list the candidate’s name as it appears on his or her declaration of candidacy.

Here’s the math.

If the courts throw out the 8,159 votes for Lisa Murkowski that Miller is contesting, she still leads by 2,169 votes.

On separate fronts, Miller’s campaign also has requested voter rolls to compare to write-in ballots to be sure voter signatures match. And those folks say they will call for — and pay for — a hand recount of ballots after a court rules on the standard by which ballots should be judged.

For the past two weeks, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman has had polls on its website relating to the U.S. Senate contest.

The first question we asked dealt with voter intent; “What should constitute voter intent on write-in ballots?”

Nearly half of those who responded to our unscientific poll said “a vote counts if Division of Elections staff can tell for whom a voter intended to cast a ballot.” Some 609 people chose this response. A quarter of those responding chose “a vote only counts if names are spelled correctly,” 322 votes.

Almost as many picked the fourth option we listed, “Joe Miller should concede.” That answer got 247 votes. Compare that to “Lisa Murkowski should just concede,” which received 101 votes, the fewest of the four options.

At least in the Valley — where we voted overwhelmingly for Miller in the primary and general elections — the tide of public opinion seems to be running against him now.

A poll on Frontiersman.com we put up Friday asks, “Should Joe Miller concede or continue his battle to be elected to the U.S. Senate?”

By a ratio of more than 3 to 1, Frontiersman readers say, “Yes. Joe Miller should concede.” Still, a contingent of Valley voters urge him to continue the fight, 147 votes. A slim 61 votes — 8 percent — voted in our poll that “Lisa Murkowski should concede.”

When Miller visited our offices during the election he made a lot of noise about the will of the people and how Murkowski’s write-in run usurped the people’s will, as expressed in the primary.

We suppose his actions now are motivated by his perception that a lawsuit contesting the will of general election voters is somehow different from the will of those in the primary, which he won.

But from where we sit, his actions seem motivated by a need to win at any cost rather than a sincere wish to honor the will of the people.

When all these legal challenges are exhausted, it seems likely the primary beneficiary of this effort will be Miller’s legal counsel, and not Alaska voters.