Miller Chides Murkowski for Failing to Support Election Law

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 12, 2010 — Today Joe Miller responded to Lisa Murkowski’s attacks on voters. “I am disappointed Murkowski endorses a complete disregard for state law. Murkowski mocks the very write-in process she invoked by now claiming it is not a spelling or penmanship test,” Miller said.

On September 15, 2010, Lt. Gov. Campbell issued a press statement confirming that the state statutory law would in fact be followed. This was in response to the Director of the Division of Elections statement that she intended to disregard the statute and instead apply her own interpretation to the ballots cast.

Prior to November 2, Murkowski sued the State to get her name printed on a voter list to be posted at every precinct. She did that and argued that, without such a list, a voter might misspell her name and the vote would not count. Murkowski knew what state law was prior to November 2, as did the Lt. Gov.

Now, after all the votes were cast, after a candidate list was posted by court order at the polls, after Murkowski spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising proper spelling, wrist bands, tattoos and pencils, now Murkowski claims that the law does not matter. For a person seeking to return to Congress to make laws, this is disturbing, inept and hypocritical.

Said Miller, “We are a nation of laws. Murkowski seems to think the laws are malleable, and she can pick and choose which ones she wants to follow and which ones she will violate. Murkowski continues to represent everything that is wrong with D.C. Her beltway attitude, that the laws only apply to the rest of us, is unfortunately too common in D.C.”

Finally, Miller noted that “I have stated all along. I want the law followed. If I win this, I want to win this fair and square. One would think Murkowski would have the same goal.”

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Miller Forced to File Suit to Get Records

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 12, 2010 — Today, Joe Miller filed suit in state court in Juneau (see complaint here) in order to compel the State to fulfill its legal obligations under the Public Records Act and allow him to inspect the election registers from certain precincts that voters signed before casting their ballots. Joe Miller said, “The election registers are public records, and there is no excuse for the State attempting to keep them confidential and shield them from public scrutiny until after the vote count is over.” He added, “The public must be permitted to inspect the election registers in a timely manner, before a winner is declared in the U.S. Senate race, in order for the electoral process to remain open, transparent, and fair.”

The Miller campaign consistently has maintained that every valid, lawful vote should be counted. Allowing public inspection of the election registers provides a vital check that helps ensure that legitimate votes are not improperly diluted by illegally or fraudulently cast votes, and  that the results of the election are not tainted by mistake or irregularity.

According to the campaign’s chief counsel, Thomas Van Flein, “The State has an absolute duty to disclose crucial public records such as these election registers in a ‘timely, reasonable, and responsive manner.’ During a contested election, timeliness becomes all the more crucial.” He noted that the lawsuit simply asks that attorneys and volunteers for the campaign be given access to inspect the election registers, rather than seeking to require the Division of Elections to make copies, so that Division personnel would not have to be diverted from counting the write-in vote ballots.

Said Van Flein, “I understand that the state said it is busy, but the needs of the public, and the interests of election transparency, require more effort than might otherwise be acceptable. It makes no sense to wait until after November 29 to give us access to records that could impact the validity of the certification process. Now is the time to deal with any potential irregularities, if any.”

Miller emphasized that the campaign was not seeking any private information about voters, or attempting to ascertain how anyone cast their ballot. “Inspecting the registers will allow us to simply count the number of signatures in each precinct, to ensure that no “extra” ballots materialized, and to compare the signatures from the polling places with those already on record, to ensure that the election was conducted in full compliance with state law. This is in essence a quality control check that should be routine for most elections.”

Campaign advisor Floyd Brown added, “We have a team in Juneau standing by to review these records. The matter is urgent. Timing is everything. We cannot be slow-rolled by the state on this. We were left with no choice but to ask a judge to order the state to get these records to the public so they can be reviewed.”

The campaign will likely be filing a motion for summary judgment early next week, along with a request for expedited consideration, asking the court to rule on its claim quickly. However, the campaign also hopes the State will simply allow the Miller team access and then this suit can be dismissed as moot.

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Joe Miller Advisor to Hold Press Conference

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Juneau, AK- November 12, 2010 — Floyd Brown, Advisor to Joe Miller, the Republican Nominee for the U.S. Senate, will host a Press Conference & Availability at 3:30pm today.

Who:

Floyd Brown, Advisor to Joe Miller, Republican Nominee for the U.S. Senate

When:

Today – Friday, November 12, 2010

3:30pm

Where:

Old Litho Building (Write-in counting location)

101 Mill Street

Juneau, Alaska 99801

What:

Brown will give an update on the race and further address issues of voter fraud in the state.

For media questions email Randy DeSoto at [email protected] or Joe Koss at [email protected]

Voter Fraud Hotline Established

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 11, 2010 — An advisor to the Joe Miller Campaign, Floyd Brown, today announced that, because of the many reports of possible voter fraud, he has opened a toll free voter fraud hotline allowing people to report any voting irregularities they witnessed. The toll free number is 1-866-446-4138.

Brown noted that “serious allegations of fraud, voter intimidation and voter bullying” have been surfacing since the election. Brown went on to state that “after the secret video of the illegal campaign rally by a federal contractor on Eielson Air Force base went national,” referring to a political event paid for by taxpayers, “we have received multiple reports of other potentially illegal campaign activity.” Brown added that, “To facilitate collection of this material for law enforcement or legal review, we thought it best to establish a centralized number where people could call, anonymously if need be, and leave information. We encourage any citizen who has a concern to call this number.”

In addition, Brown also declared that he “is confident that Joe Miller will be the next senator from the state of Alaska.”The confidence is based on the absentee votes continuing to break in favor of Miller combined with Brown’s expectation that ultimately the state will have to follow the actual statute imposed by the legislature when counting write-in ballots. Said Brown, “What I have witnessed in Juneau is nothing short of astonishing. A state employee is walking around a room, looking at ballots, and with a flourish of contempt and arrogance, “decides” what a voter “really” meant.” For example, the state is counting protest votes. One voter wrote in “Murkowitz” protesting both Murkowski and candidate Ethan Berkowitz. But the state, now in the role of a super-voter, has decided that negative protest votes will be instead re-voted as positive votes for Lisa Murkowski. This is the essence of a fixed election.

Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell, the state official charged with overseeing the Division of Elections, could not even articulate what the newly created “voter intent” test looked like in actual application to the write-in ballots. In an interview with NBC News in Juneau yesterday he said, “There has been a lot of variation. It does get down to, if there’s more than one letter misspelled, if there are numerous letters misspelled, it may not sound like Murkowski to one person, it does to another, that becomes the issue that’s contested in courts.” This is exactly the sort of confusion the state of Alaska sought to avoid when it required the name to appear on the ballot as it does on the write-in declaration of candidacy.

The campaign has requested copies of the precinct registers. Campaign lawyer John Tiemessen was told that the state was “too busy” to get these, so the Campaign will be forced to ask a judge in Juneau to order the state to produce these registers. The purpose of this review will be to establish the number of voters who signed in to vote in a particular precinct versus the actual votes reported on Election Day.

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Joe Miller Advisor to Hold Press Conference and Availability

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Juneau, AK- November 11, 2010- Floyd Brown, Advisor to Joe Miller, the Republican Nominee for the U.S. Senate, will host a Press Conference & Availability at 4:00pm today.

Who:

Floyd Brown, Advisor to Joe Miller, Republican Nominee for the U.S. Senate

When:

Today – Thursday, November 11, 2010

4:00pm

Where:

The Douglas Room of The Prospector Hotel

375 Whittier Street

Juneau, Alaska, 99801

What:

Floyd Brown will be discussing the events of the past two days and the direction of the Miller campaign heading into the weekend.

For media questions email Randy DeSoto at [email protected] or Joe Koss at [email protected].

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Court Orders State to Respond to Injunction Request

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 10, 2010 — Today, in response to the Miller campaign’s motion for an injunction to compel the state to follow state law in balloting counting, the District Court judge ordered the State to file a response to the motion by November 15, 2010, and for the Miller campaign to file any reply by November 18. A hearing may be held after that.
 
The court reasoned that as long as the state of Alaska was segregating the challenged ballots, the legal issue regarding the validity of these ballots could be determined after the initial count was completed. Joe Miller said, “I am pleased the court will look at the issues we have raised. I would have liked the legal issues to have been resolved before there is a preliminary count, since the state cannot certify a winner until the court rules on the validity of the ballot counting process. So this will necessarily extend the actual final vote count until after November 18, as the vote count until then will be provisional.”
 
Counsel for the Miller Campaign, Thomas Van Flein, added that “The point of this is to make sure the rules, and the law, are followed, so that the winner of this election will be elected fairly and, in the eyes of the public, legitimately.” Attorney John Tiemessen, who has been monitoring the ballot count in Juneau, added “Watching the application of the newly invented “voter intent” standard has been troubling. We have seen first hand ballots ‘put on hold’ because the state employee could not figure out voter intent, but thought if they looked at the same ballot tomorrow or the next day, the ballot might be easier to understand. This is precisely the problem with having a state bureaucrat guess what a voter supposedly meant. In reality, the state bureaucrat is casting that vote. It is an issue the court needs to address.”
 

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Miller Seeks to Uphold Valid Ballot Count and State Law

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 9, 2010 — Today, the Joe Miller for U.S. Senate campaign, was compelled to file suit in federal court in an effort to obtain an order forcing the State, Division of Elections, to comply with state law. Joe Miller said, “We asked the Division of Elections several times to comply with the clear legislative mandate regarding write-in ballot counts. The Division rejected the legislative statute, one that even told the Division in no uncertain terms that there shall be “no exceptions” to how the write-in ballots should be counted, and instead it substituted its own standards. This last minute change, created yesterday, besides being potentially unconstitutional, is troubling. Above all else, we want a fair election, and we want the law to be followed as written, not as a state employee wants it to be.”

The Miller Campaign has consistently maintained that every valid, lawful vote should be counted. It has further held to the expectation that the state laws, as written, should be followed, and that they should not be changed now, after the votes have been cast. Yesterday, the state issued a new policy–after the votes have been cast–imposing a new election standard for write-in ballots. The Campaign believes this action to be unconstitutional under the Federal Elections Clause governing senatorial elections and contrary to express legislative mandates.

The Miller Campaign filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction this afternoon in federal court. A hard copy of the complaint, motion, and motion for expedited consideration, were hand-delivered to the Attorney General’s office earlier today, to the attention of Dan Sullivan.

The Campaign has asked the court to order the state to respond by Noon tomorrow so we can have a hearing on this tomorrow afternoon.

According to campaign chief legal counsel Thomas Van Flein, the Miller Campaign is asking the federal court to order the Division of Elections to adhere to state law, and the objective standard implemented by the legislature. “It is our view that the state improperly deviated from the text of the statute, and is substituting a subjective “voter intent” standard and essentially repealing the legislative objective standard sub silentio,” said Van Flein.

Specifically, under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the state legislatures have the exclusive legal authority to establish voting standards for federal elections. Van Flein elaborated that the “U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to bar both the state judiciary and the state executive branch from altering the legislative standards. In our view, by now imposing a “voter intent” standard even though the legislature stated emphatically “no exceptions,” the state executive branch has unconstitutionally usurped the exclusive prerogative of the legislative branch.”

Miller concluded by noting that “We want a consistent application of the law, not new standards created literally 36 hours before the vote count is to start and after all the votes have been cast.”

Federal Supervision of State Election

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Anchorage, Alaska. November 9, 2010 — The Joe Miller for US Senate Campaign has reviewed the Alaska Federation of Natives (“AFN”) request for federal observers during the vote count. Joe Miller agrees that the Department of Justice should have observers to prevent an unconstitutional usurpation of the Elections Clause and the public right to due process. “We have requested from the outset a fair and lawful electoral process,” said Joe Miller. “If the State needs to be supervised by the federal government because of violations of Federal Election Law, as AFN suggests, then it is unfortunate but apparently necessary,” said Miller.

The Miller Campaign disagrees, however, with the implicit and explicit assumptions fostered by the AFN that rural Alaskans, and Alaska Natives in particular, don’t know how to spell. Said Miller, “I think rural Alaskans deserve a lot more credit than the AFN is willing to give.”

In addition, Harold Rudolph, an Alaskan Native and military veteran stated “I find the AFN presumption about Alaska Natives to be condescending, paternalistic and just plain offensive. This group does not speak for me and thousands of Alaska Natives like me.” Fellow Native Phil Kugzruk added, “All Joe wants to do is make sure the ballots are counted according to the laws on the books. The AFN board subverted due process among the Native Alaska population a few weeks ago when the other two candidates, Miller and McAdams, were not given equal time at their annual convention. I believe that AFN is playing politics once again, as it did during the campaign, and acting like it speaks for all of Alaska’s natives. To imply that ‘their’ constituency does not know how to spell, and given that thousands of Murkowski wristbands detailing AFN’s chosen candidate were made available, all this amounts to a complete disrespect for me and my fellow Alaskans. AFN will do whatever it takes to get ‘their’ candidate elected!”

Miller Questions Use of Taxpayers’ Dollars to Influence U.S. Senate Race

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Century Park North Housing Development, Eielson Air Force Base Federal Government Contractor Linked to Anti-Miller Electioneering; SuperPac ‘Alaskans Standing Together’ Pours Over a Million Taxpayer Dollars into Race Against Miller

Anchorage, Alaska. November 8, 2010 — Joe Miller appeared on “Huckabee” (Fox News Channel) over the weekend, and addressed his concerns about electioneering that occurred in the Alaska U.S. Senate race.

The show featured a surprising video that was shot the day before last week’s election. The video was taken at a federal construction site (Century Park North Housing Development, Eielson Air Force Base) where a supervisor was supposed to give a “safety speech” but it quickly turned into electioneering on behalf of the write-in candidate.

Such electioneering likely violates federal law. The employees were getting paid with taxpayer money to listen and be instructed how to vote. The location was federal property, also making this illegal. See 11 CFR Sec. 115.2. In short, the taxpayers were paying for a political rally on federal property, since the rally attendees were all on the clock.

“This raises still more concerns about the corrupting influence of federal contracting in Alaska and the role federal tax money illegally played in influencing this election,” said Joe Miller.

The SuperPac, “Alaskans Standing Together”(AST), funded almost entirely by privileged no-bid federal contracting corporations, poured $1.2 million to influence voters against Miller. An FEC complaint is pending regarding these questionable expenditures. (See Miller Campaign Press Release “Nine Benefactors of ‘Alaskans Standing Together in Violation of Federal Election Laws”, Oct. 20, 2010)

As noted by National Review, there was an obvious quid pro quo between the corporations, whose very profitability depends on federal handouts, and efforts to elect Murkowski who promised more federal largesse. (National Review, “Murkowski’s Quid Pro Quo”, Oct.18, 2010).

Joe Miller also said “Alaskans need to know the pervasive and illegitimate sway that federal dollars can have at the local, state and national levels.”
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Miller Campaign Wants a Fair and Accurate Vote Count

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The Miller Campaign Expects the Division of Elections to Adhere to Alaska Statutory Law

Anchorage, Alaska. November 7, 2010 — Joe Miller, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, wants to ensure the law, as it is written, will be the standard used during the vote count and not a new interpretation. In a letter to Gail Fenumiai, Director of the Alaska Division of Elections, Thomas Van Flein, general counsel to the Miller campaign, outlined a series of concerns about the ballot count and its proposed location in Juneau.

The campaign wants the state to follow statutory law during the review process. Alaska Statute 15.15.360 (11) requires that “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.” This statute does not allow for the election board to weigh “voter intent” or use any other criteria.

Prior to the general election, Ms. Fenumiai had also indicated that write in votes would be counted on Nov 18, fifteen days after the general election. However, the day after the election, a decision was made to suddenly start counting ballots on Nov 10, ten days prior to the original date. Given the geographical and financial challenges of getting observer teams assembled in Juneau, the earlier date makes it extremely difficult to honor the process, set out by law. The Miller campaign is concerned with ensuring a fair and accurate counting of the ballots. Anywhere from forty to sixty observers must be trained, and arrangements made to move team members to Juneau.

The Miller campaign is pleased that the Division of Elections has reversed an earlier decision by Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell and his pronouncement that the state would not to count write-in votes for Joe Miller. State law clearly indicates that a properly filled in write-in ballot is valid even if the write-in name is on the ballot. Randy DeSoto, spokesman for the Miller campaign, said “Our only goal is a fair and accurate counting of the ballots. Alaskans deserve to have a process they can be confident in without room for subjective interpretation. Much of Lisa Murkowski’s campaign–including ads, signs, and handout materials–was aimed at making sure people fulfilled the legal requirement so their vote would count.”

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