Sponsored Content
« Overnight Open Thread | Main | Saturday Morning Stupid: What's Charlie Crist Doing? »
December 11, 2010

Alaska Senate Update: Judge Rules Against Miller

To recap: Joe Miller got an injunction from a federal court preventing the state Division of Elections from certifying Murkowski the winner of the election, but the federal court held that he would have to go to state court to resolve the questions about state law.

Yesterday evening, the state court judge ruled that Miller's spelling and fraud challenges are without merit.

Judge William Carey, in a ruling issued Friday, found that Mr. Miller had failed to demonstrate his claims that the results of the midterm elections in November were tainted by misconduct or fraud on the part of election officials. The judge also concluded that the outcome would have been the same even if the Republican candidate's charges had been true.

The state judge's decision is here (PDF). We've been over the exact-spelling rule challenge a couple times here at the HQ, so I'm not going to dig into that too deep. The judge's reasoning is not that great, especially when he's purporting to interpret the text of the statute, but he ultimately did what I expected which was apply the Alaska Supreme Court's "voter intent" rule.

The thing that interested me most about this lawsuit were Miller's late-pleaded fraud claims. Here's what the judge said about that:

Nowhere does Miller provide facts showing a genuine issue of fraud or election official misfeasance. Instead, the majority of the problematic statements included in the affidavits are inadmissible hearsay, speculation, and occasional complaints of sarcasm expressed by DOE workers. Nothing rises to the level showing genuine material facts of fraud.

The judge seemed troubled that Miller apparently sat on these claims from November 17 through December 2 without trying to pursue them. In an ordinary lawsuit, two weeks is an extraordinarily short time to expect a party to take firm action. Miller had a couple things cutting against him: he filed the lawsuits, so the court will expect him to present allegations of genuine claims, and, as we've seen over and over election lawsuits are different.

The Division of Elections moved immediately to have the federal injunction dropped. The federal judge gave Miller until Monday to figure out what he wants to do. He could appeal in the Alaska courts and, ultimately, if he doesn't like what he gets there, take his lawsuit back to the federal courts on his constitutional claims.


digg this
posted by Gabriel Malor at 10:47 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Anonymous: "I work online, go to school full-time, and have ea ..."

Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere [/i] [/b]: "Foist! ..."

JT: "Tap-Tap-Tap....is this thing on ? ..."

JT: "MIKLOS ! ..."

JT: " Slava JT Posted by: Hiya Timers LLC Slava ? ..."

Hiya Timers LLC: "Slava JT ..."

Skip: "Way I get weather forecast is Jersey might see pop ..."

JT: "No rain here. YET ! ..."

Bitter Clinger : "[i]449 Bitter Clinger even worse, they will join t ..."

JT: "Hiya ..."

Skip: "Bitter Clinger even worse, they will join the Cali ..."

Bitter Clinger : "Well, except for no-tipping Euro-trash. You can ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64