Anchorage, Alaska. November 29, 2010 — Today, Superior Court Judge Doug Blankenship issued a ruling transferring the election standards case to Juneau. The judge ruled that venue was proper in Fairbanks, Alaska, but he raised concerns about the many possible questions of fact that could be raised that would require a judge to personally review hundreds of ballots. In a somewhat troubling argument, the State of Alaska argued that it could not guarantee the chain of custody and security of the ballots if they were shipped from Juneau to Fairbanks.

“We all paused when the state Attorney General admitted to having security concerns about the ballots. We simply assumed the same security measures used to transport the ballots from Fairbanks (and from throughout the state of Alaska) to Juneau after they were cast would be used to transfer ballots from Juneau to Fairbanks, if that were necessary,” said Joe Miller. “But there was a noticeable quiet in the courtroom when the state’s attorney questioned their own ability to secure these ballots. We don’t know what to make of this at the moment,” Miller concluded.

In light of the State’s admitted security concerns, and its concerns about leaving the ballots in Juneau, the Miller campaign will not seek any review of the court’s decision today. “I think the important issue here is a question of law. Our main concern is a fair and accurate vote count, consistent with state law, is the outcome of these legal proceedings, whether in Fairbanks or Juneau,” said Miller campaign counsel Thomas Van Flein.

A status conference has been set for Wednesday afternoon in Juneau.

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 24, 2010 — The Lieutenant Governor, with only two weeks remaining in his term, issued a press release yesterday vigorously criticizing the Miller campaign and its state court legal action that the federal court ordered to be filed by this past Monday.

Unfortunately, Campbell plays fast and loose with the facts in his press release. It was in his own court briefs several weeks ago where he argued vigorously for the use and distribution of a write-in candidate list at all of the state’s polling places, a first in Alaskan history. The trial judge found that these lists violated state law. Campbell then appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court and argued that providing these unprecedented write-in lists was necessary so that voters would not misspell Murkowski’s name and thereby have their votes counted.

This action was taken solely as a favor to Murkowski, for the purpose of ensuring that Murkowski voters spelled her name correctly – as Campbell understood the state write-in statute to require.

The fact that Campbell has now taken a position 180 degrees different from what he argued before the Alaska Supreme Court prior to the election is truly unbelievable. His accusation now, that the Miller campaign has wrongfully sought recourse in the courts, flies in the face of his own actions and statements. This position is also directly contrary to Murkowski’s original position as reflected by her advertising campaign that focused on spelling bees and wristbands.

The unfortunate fact is Campbell had two months to prepare for the write-in election rules but then waited until after the election, and just 36 hours before the write-in counting began, to issue his illegal written standards for review of the write-in vote. To make matters much worse, he then rushed the count date forward by over a week, seriously compromising the integrity of the count.

Had Campbell done his job in a neutral, competent, and lawful fashion, the Miller Campaign would not have needed to seek court assistance. Is it too much to ask that the Lieutenant Governor be unbiased and simply follow state law?

Campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said, “The Lt. Governor is correct about one thing – if the questions raised by the Miller campaign are left unanswered, the public will lose trust in the election process in Alaska. Where we disagree is the source of this distrust. Currently the Federal Court seems to agree that we have raised ‘serious’ legal issues that must be resolved before this process moves forward.”

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 19, 2010 — Today the U.S. Federal District Court in Anchorage ordered the U.S. Senate race not to be certified until vital legal issues are resolved. The Court recognized serious statutory matters have been raised by Joe Miller concerning what standard of review should be used to count the write-in ballots. The Miller campaign has consistently held that the state law must be applied, as written. Its provisions could not be clearer: “A vote for a write-in candidate…shall be counted if the oval is filled in for that candidate and if the name, as it appears on the write-in declaration of candidacy of the candidate or the last name of the candidate is written in the space provided” and, “The rules set out in this section are mandatory and there are no exceptions to them. A ballot may not be counted unless marked in compliance with these rules.” The Division of Elections chose to ignore that clear standard and instead issued new guidelines concerning “voter intent” only 36 hours before ballot review began.

Federal District Judge Ralph Beistline in his ruling held, “In order to ensure that these serious State law issues are resolved prior to certification of the election, the Court hereby conditionally grants Plaintiff’s motion to enjoin certification of the election.” The Judge added, “[T]he results of this election shall not be certified until the legal issues raised therein have been fully and finally resolved.”

Joe Miller reacted to the ruling saying, “I am gratified to have Judge Beistline recognize that we have raised vital questions concerning the ballot review in this election. It is critical that these issues be resolved not only for this election, but for future ones in Alaska, as well. We are a nation of laws, and the law concerning this could not be clearer. We need the state law applied consistently to all ballots cast. We look forward to the state court’s interpretation of the relevant laws consistent with what the people of Alaska enacted through their state legislature.”

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 17, 2010 — Joe Miller, U.S. Senate candidate, anticipates the end of the vote counting in Alaska today with the tallying of the overseas ballots. With over 255,000 votes cast, less than one percent of the vote total now separates Miller and Murkowski.

In order to ensure the integrity of the election results, the Miller campaign has requested, and the Division of Elections has now granted, the opportunity to review some precinct logs from throughout the state. Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said, “Our campaign has sworn affidavits identifying unsecured ballot boxes, other precincts where numerous ballots appear to be in the same handwriting, others where there is 100% voter turnout and still other precincts where the ballots were sent to the Division of Elections presorted by U.S. Senate candidate. These and other irregularities give our campaign pause. Alaskans must be able to trust the results of its elections.”

One important step in reviewing the results of the election is ensuring that the number of voters signed in the precinct logs on Election Day matches the number of votes being recorded from that precinct and that there is no evidence of voter fraud. Further verification of these totals will have to come from the tapes that the voting machines produce with a tally of the number of voters and the break down between candidates. So far the Division of Elections has failed to respond to the Miller request for these tapes.

The Miller campaign will be conducting its review of selected precinct logs tomorrow and possibly Saturday, and will want the voting machine tapes as part of its review. The Division of Elections has also begun its required audit of random precincts from all 40 districts throughout the state.

Additionally, the Murkowski write-in ballots have undergone a hand count review where spoiled ballots are being counted for her, whereas the Miller ballots have all been counted by machine with many valid ballots not being included.

Joe Miller said, “After all the absentee ballots are in and we’ve further reviewed the procedures and the results, we may ask for a recount. Less than 1% of the vote now separates my and Lisa Murkowski’s total. If there is a recount and a consistent standard is applied to all the ballots, who knows what the difference would be. We need to uphold the integrity of the vote and we need a consistent standard.”

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 16, 2010 — The Joe Miller campaign is pleased the Division of Elections will allow access to several precinct registers for review; however, the Division has not responded to the campaign’s request to review the voting tapes generated by the voting machines at the polling places. These tapes tally the total number of votes cast.

The Joe Miller campaign filed suit last Friday in state court in Juneau in order to compel the State to fulfill its legal obligations under the Public Records Act and allow inspection of the election registers from certain precincts that voters signed before casting their ballots. The Division of Elections had been unresponsive to the Miller request. The lawsuit simply asked that representatives from the campaign be given access to inspect the election registers.

Given the contested nature of the election, time is of the essence to ensure the vote count is trustworthy and that each valid vote is counted, and that there is no opportunity for fraud to taint the election results. Irregularities at polling places have been noted both Election Day and during the ballot review process including sworn affidavits testifying to unsecured ballot boxes and ballot envelopes arriving in Juneau presorted by the Senate race: these ballots are not to be handled in this fashion prior to the write-in review.

Miller Campaign Chief Counsel Tom Van Flein noted, “The campaign determined that inspection of precinct registers was an appropriate audit to spot check the process. The registers will provide data on the number of people who signed in to vote which can be matched with the number of votes tallied for each precinct.”

Another essential verification of the vote totals will be a review of the voting tapes created by the vote counting machines from the precincts. The Miller campaign has requested a review of the tapes from certain precincts, but thus far the Division of Elections has refused to respond to this request.

Miller campaign spokesman Randy DeSoto said, “The review of these tapes will help ensure the accuracy of the vote count. The Alaska Democratic Party brought suit against the Division of Elections in 2006 because of the wide variation in the Division’s “Official Results Statewide Summary” and the “Statement of Votes Cast” reports. The Democratic Party’s complaint noted in 2004 there was a 77,546 vote discrepancy for Lisa Murkowski between the two reports. We want to avoid any such reason to doubt the results in this election.”

DeSoto added, “At the end of six days of ballot counting, the race between Joe Miller and Lisa Murkowski is still very close. The number of Joe Miller votes is 90,448, while the number unchallenged votes for Lisa Murkowski stands at 84,563. If current trends continue, Murkowski’s final unchallenged tally will be in close proximity to Miller’s total. Additionally, there are hundreds of ballots yet to be counted including those from overseas military personnel, which may draw the overall numbers between the Miller and Murkowski even closer. The race is far from over.”