This Blog Post Paid for by Joe Miller

The Anchorage Daily News seems to be doing a pretty good job covering all the malfeasance in Alaska ballot counting, which seems to be that every possible permutation of Lisa Murkowski's name is being challenged, including the correct one.
But the reasons for the challenges are pretty obvious.  As you might recall, Alaska Elections Law requires that the name on the ballot appear "as it is written on the write-in declaration of candidacy." The Miller campaign has sued the Department of Elections to make sure than any ballot which deviates from the write-in candidacy declaration form is thrown out.  The following are ballots that have been challenged by the Miller campaign- see if you can guess why they were challenged (answers below the fold).


A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

A. Though the spelling looks correct, if you look closely, you'll notice that this signature was written by a left-handed person.  The declaration of candidacy was filled out by a right-handed staffer, so this this obviously doesn't meet the "name appears..." standard.


B. That could read Lisa Markowski.  It doesn't, but it could.  Therefore, it's obviously invalid, and not as the name appears on the write-in candidacy declaration form.
C.  ALL CAPS might be fine on the internet, but not in the ballot box.
D. Once again, someone hit the shiFt key in the wrong part on their pen.  It's an error that could happen to anybody, but this poor voter's voice won't be heard in 2010.  Better luck in 2012!
E. The ballot is clearly blurred, and the write-in candidacy declaration form is crisp.  Bye bye, intent of the voter.