Alaska Judge: No Write-In Lists for Voters
Politico reports:
In a major blow to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign, an Alaska judge ruled Wednesday that election officials cannot hand out lists with the names of write-in candidates.
State Judge Frank Pfiffner ordered the state Division of Election to stop distributing the lists because it was “clear violation” of an existing state regulation.
The judge’s ruling is no doubt a setback to Murkowski, whom polls showed is tied with Republican Joe Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams.
Not only does the judge’s ruling not allow poll workers to hand out a list of names of write-in candidates, it also prevents poll workers from verbally providing the names.
“The actions of the Division are in a clear violation of an Alaska administrative regulation,” wrote Pfiffner. “The court hereby grants a temporary restraining order enjoining the Division for allowing election workers and polling place workers to post write-in candidate names, to provide a list of write-in candidate names to voters, or to provide verbally the names of write-in candidates to voters at any place within 200 feet of a polling place for the November 2010 general election.”
Although the state Division of Elections had not printed lists of write-in candidates in previous elections, an attorney for the division argued there were “more voters than usual requesting assistance with write-in voting” because of Murkowski’s high-profile candidacy. In its own legal brief, the state Division of Elections argued that they were fulfilling their “statutorily mandated” obligations to assist voters at the polls.
The state Republican and Democratic parties joined forces earlier this week to protest the Alaska Division of Elections, which had been printing sheets with write-in candidate names and already posted one list at an early-voting location in Homer, Alaska.
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