The Big Murkowski: Broad vision of "intent" in write-in ballots

Think back to November, 2000... in the contested election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, in Florida, there was a little controversy over "voter intent." While most people remember "hanging chads," that argument was a single facet of a more complicated issue: On a ballot, how do we know what the voter intended to do? Thus, we argue about a hanging chad--did the voter intend to vote for the candidate, or did the voter begin to vote for the candidate and changed their mind, leaving the chad still attached?

Well, quick, spell Lisa Murcowski Murkowsky Murkowski. Murkowski (I checked) is the recently defeated incumbent in a Republican primary for Senate in Alaska. Word on the street is that she may run a write-in campaign. In a tough Bush v. Gore world, imagine the conflicts over a requirement that a written-in candidate's name be spelled perfectly, or how to count an ambiguously-spelled name Apparently, in Alaska, even though the Murkowski family has held a statewide political office for 20+ years leaves open the very definite possibility that her name will be spelled wrong often enough that it might affect the election results.

Or not. According to this report in the Alaska Daily News, the "Big Murkowski" has been thinking about this very problem, and the Alaska Election Board has been pondering it as well. Apparently, just writing "Lisa" probably isn't enough, but "Lisa M" would probably register. What about Lisa N? They've also ruled out stamps and stickers with her name, although I'm not sure what they'd do if someone went ahead and did that--placed a little "Lisa M" sticker on the ballot. Not sure what this says about the spelling skills of Alaskans--as I mentioned, there's been a Murkowski in a statewide office for the past 30 years or so, you'd think they could spell it.

Also, it seems strange to simply allow "Lisa M." I would think that voters should at least make an attempt at spelling her name--allowing Lisa M in advance seems like a big cop-out to me.

(Athough, in full disclosure, I can't spell Kulongoski without looking it up). I am also reminded of a funny-ish story from Texas in 2006, when Shelley Sekula-Gibbs ran for Congress, and failed. Ms. Sekula-Gibbs, you almost certainly won't remember, was the Michelle Bachmann-esque crazy who took over Tom DeLay's seat for a few weeks after he resigned. She promptly lost the seat, although the timing of DeLay's resignation required that she run by a write-in campaign. (She was famously insane and awful; at one point in her 7-week reign, most of which was after the election, she sent out a press release touting her attendance record to meetings).  Wonkette reported with relish both her antics and the unfortunate spelling capabilities of her constituency, noting that among the written-in spelling variations were, 

"Kelly Segula Gibbs, Snelly Gibbr, Schikulla Gibbs, Sheila Gibbs, Shelly Schulla Gibbs, Shelly Gibkula and, by someone who obviously never wanted the joy of using the machine to end, ShelleySkulaGibbsssss." 

Those were the name accepted by the Elections Office. Another name (unclear if it was accepted as a vote) was clearly NSFW. I've redacted the letters, but you can take a guess (or follow the Wonkette link):

"The absolute best one — perhaps the best political name of all time — was (we are not lying) “Shelly DraculaC[XXX] Gibs.” It counted. And we will say it over and over again until the end of DraculaC[XXX]’s all-too-brief term."