November 17, 2010
Wednesday AM

Tuesday the State of Alaska finished the hand count of write-in ballots cast in the race for U.S. Senate. The results show Senator Lisa Murkowski with 100,868 votes compared to 90,468 for Joe Miller, which includes 20 write-in votes for Miller. That represents a 10,400-vote lead over Miller.

Miller’s observers have “challenged” 8,153 of Murkowski’s votes, but not enough to change the outcome of the election. As the campaign has predicted over the past several days, Murkowski’s “unchallenged” votes surpassed Miller by 2,247 votes according to a news release from Kevin Sweeney, Murkowski's campaign manager.

According to Sweeney, Senator Murkowski will not declare victory until all the overseas ballots are counted. The Alaska Division of Elections says it will likely count those ballots Wednesday, of which there are likely to be about 300-500.

“Throughout the past several days, Joe Miller has said that he will not continue to contest the election if the votes don’t add up,” said campaign manager Kevin Sweeney. “By the end of the day tomorrow after every Alaskan vote will have been counted, we expect Mr. Miller to keep his word,” said Sweeney.

Miller has yet to announce whether he will move forward with a federal lawsuit challenging election procedure, demand a recount or concede.

Murkowski returns to Alaska today.

Source of News:

Lisa Murkowski for U.S. Senate Campaign

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