Murkowski's Write-In Campaign - What Are Her Chances? - The Mudflats

The supporters have been rallied, the big announcement has been made and Senator Lisa Murkowski is off and running on her whirlwind write-in campaign!

So what are her actual chances of winning?

1) There is the problem of her name.

Lisa Murkowski…doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue or the pen. However, it looks like a write-in won’t be as stringent as was once thought. Just “Lisa” would not be enough according to outgoing Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell. However, voters would not need to spell Murkowski’s name correctly if “intent could be ascertained” according to Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai…even “Lisa M” is a possibility. However, there are rumblings of problems (see item 4).

2) There is the problem of the “oval.”

Alaska uses the cards and card-reading machines. So, even though a voter may have written Lisa Murkowski’s name perfectly, it doesn’t count if they don’t color-in the oval next to it for the machine to read. This particular issue is of concern to those who have questions about machine tampering — the only way to catch a ballot that does have the dot colored in but was somehow unread by the machine is in a recount.

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So, what are Senator Murkowski’s chances? If you judge by the enthusiasm of her supporters, she has a shot. If you judge by the practicalities of a write-in campaign in general, her chances aren’t good. If you judge based on the write-in campaigns in Alaska’s history, she has no chance at all.

So the question you have to ask yourself…do you believe in unicorns?

Stay tuned and break out your popcorn…