Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell is recommending dozens of changes to state election law following last year’s disputed write-in election battle for a U.S. Senate seat. None of the changes to election law or regulations would have changed the outcome, Treadwell said, and many conform Alaska election law to existing court rulings that guided the outcome of that election.
Some were recommended by a judge who heard Republican senatorial nominee Joe Miller’s challenge to write-in candidate Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s eventual election victory. The report’s most important conclusion is that the election process was handled appropriately despite the lack of laws addressing key aspects of how such an election needed to be handled.
The most prominent recommendation is that state law should codify that the voter intent should prevail in deciding write-in ballots, and minor misspellings or unusual formats should be disregarded.
That’s the standard that was used by Elections Director Gail Fenumiai and upheld by the courts, but was challenged by Miller.
Full Article: http://juneauempire.com/state/2011-04-02/report-recommends-changes-state-election-laws