Alaska

Murkowski Poised for Write-In Victory

Gets 40 percent of the vote.

Sarah Palin may have had a good night on Tuesday, but this one has to hurt a little: So far, 80 percent of the votes have been counted and Lisa Murkowski’s write-in campaign appears to have earned 40 percent of the vote—six points ahead of Palin-endorsed Tea Partier Joe Miller’s 34 percent. The last write-in candidate to win any Senate seat was Strom Thurmond in 1954. Miller’s camp says it's prepared to take this to court once all the votes are counted. That could take weeks since, “it won't be clear for weeks at least how many of the voters wrote in Murkowski's name, and how many did it properly enough to be counted.” On November 18, a count begins to ensure the write-ins do indeed say Murkowski. Alaska's voting machines are computerized, save write-ins, in which case a paper ballot is used to write down the name of the candidate.