98 percent of write-on ballots go to Murkowski, Miller team aggressively challenging even those with correct spelling.

From ADN:

Almost 98 percent of write-in ballots opened Wednesday went to Lisa Murkowski on the first day of a count meant to decide Alaska's U.S. Senate race.

The Division of Elections accepted few of the objections made by Joe Miller's campaign to the ballots.

"So far things look really good for us," said Murkowski campaign manager Kevin Sweeney, who is in Juneau watching the write-in ballot count.

So it looks like the Miller campaign is essentialy fighting a lost cause, and their desperation is evident for all to see.

Miller campaign observers successfully challenged only 1.44 percent of the 19,203 ballots counted on Wednesday. Fenumiai agreed with challenges by the Miller campaign of ballots like "McCosky," "Misskowski" and "Morcowski."

Some of the ballots challenged by Miller campaign observers Wednesday appeared to be correctly spelled "Lisa Murkowski," with the oval filled in as required. Fenumiai said she was seeing "a lot" of such apparently properly filled out write-in ballots being challenged.

The Alaska Dispatch seems to have a handle on the Miller campaign's game plan at his point.

If each of the ballots the Miller observers challenged Wednesday was, indeed, thrown out and the early rate of unacceptable ballots, as judged by the Miller campaign, were to continue, Miller would be close to having enough votes to win a Senate seat.

So apparently they seem to be banking on the idea that if they just keep randomly challenging votes maybe enough of the challenges will stick to give Miller the victory.  Can you say "pathetic?"

Of course having his minions challenge every other write-in vote is not the only spoiler that Miller and Sarah Palin's attorney have up their sleeve.

(November 10, 2010) - Lt. Governor Craig E. Campbell held a press conference today in Juneau regarding the recent lawsuit filed by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, the write-in ballot count and allegations of bias.

Miller filed suit in Federal Court Tuesday in an effort to stop the write-in count from proceeding alleging voter intent is addressed in Alaska state statute.

"From the beginning, it has been our position that slight misspelling of a write-in candidate's name would count. I have not waivered from this stance. The state will continue its efforts to count write-in ballots, unless we hear otherwise from the courts," Campbell said.

Perhaps my favorite part of this little dramedy is that the judge, Joe Sedwick,  who was originally assigned to oversee Miller's write-in lawsuit had himself taken off because essentially he does not like the little shit.

Here is his recusal:

Plaintiff Joe Miller was once employed by this court as a part-time magistrate judge in Fairbanks. Subsequent to Mr. Miller's appointment to that position, I became chief judge of the district. As a result, I also became Mr. Miller's direct supervisor.

Mr. Miller's service came to an abrupt end when he called me to say that he planned to run for elective office and so would have to resign. Mr. Miller called at about 4:20 PM on the day of his resignation. The process for filling a part-time magistrate judge position is lengthy, a fact well known to Mr. Miller because he had gone through that process. Mr. Miller's failure to give reasonable notice of his resignation left the court with no judicial officer resident in Fairbanks, and no ability to fill the vacancy for many months. This incident caused me to form a negative opinion of Mr. Miller.

As a federal judicial officer, it is my duty to discourage political activity by my family members, and I do so. Nevertheless, members of my family have civil rights which they are entitled to exercise. Following the primary election, my spouse contributed to the write-in campaign of Senator Murkowski.

A reasonable person with knowledge of the above facts would conclude that my impartiality might reasonably be questioned. I recuse. The Clerk of Court will please re-assign this case to another judge.

Ouch!  You know, not that I give a shit, but one has to wonder exactly what kind of employment Miller  will be able to seek when he loses this election, since he seems to be burning his bridges like a pyromaniac on a weekend pass!

Though I guess if the rumors turn out to be true that he could always apply for the job of carrying Sarah Palin's purse.