It appears to be game over in Alaska, as the Senator’s margin appears to exceed Joe Miller even if all of Miller’s spelling challenges were accepted. In the meantime, in response to my Slate piece on the controversy, an Alaska reader wrote to say it was his recollection that these write-in rules were crafted after Bush v. Gore precisely to take discretion away from Alaska election officials and the courts in such cases. If that’s correct, I believe it would be relevant to the question of how to read the statute. In any case, after this controversy, it would be good for the Alaska state legislature (and other state legislatures) to clarify how election officials should handle minor spelling errors.