Miller sues over spelling as Alaska write-in vote count continues - MiamiHerald.com

Votes that misspell Lisa Murkowski's name shouldn't count as the state today tallies write-in ballots in the U.S. Senate race, Senate candidate Joe Miller said in a federal lawsuit Tuesday.

Miller is asking a judge to stop the state from making a judgment on a voter's intentions if the voter wrote in something other than "Murkowski" or "Lisa Murkowski." State law allows no leeway for other spellings, his lawsuit says.

Despite the lawsuit, the state is preparing this morning to start checking and counting the more than 92,000 write-in ballots cast in last week's election. Gail Fenumiai, the state's elections director, said she plans to start this counting at 9 a.m.

The state counted about 27,000 absentee and early votes Tuesday, according to Fenumiai, with Miller gaining on the write-in total by about 2,100 votes. At the end of the day, Miller remained 11,333 behind the write-in total.

At the beginning of the day, Miller had been trailing by 13,439 votes.

The Murkowski campaign reacted to Tuesday's lawsuit by accusing Miller of trying to toss out legitimate votes for the eight-year incumbent. "They're trying to discount as many votes as possible from Alaskans," Murkowski campaign manager Kevin Sweeney said.

Miller's lawyer, Tom Van Flein, is asking a federal judge for a hearing this afternoon.

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Did Clinton really ask Meek to step aside? - MiamiHerald.com

There are only two people in the world who know for sure whether former President Bill Clinton urged Democratic Senate Kendrick Meek to bow out of the race, and both of them are denying it.

Though the former president's spokesman confirmed reports that he told Meek to step aside so Gov. Charlie Crist could trip Republican Marco Rubio at the finish line, Clinton said Friday he did no such thing.

``We did talk last week following a rally in Orlando about the race and its challenges,'' Clinton said in carefully worded statement. ``I didn't ask Kendrick to leave the race, nor did Kendrick say that he would. I told him that how he proceeds was his decision to make and that I would support him regardless.''

Meek launched his own counteroffensive as yet another poll showed him mired in third place. He bounced over the airwaves from Fox and Friends to ABC's Good Morning America to MSNBC's Morning Joe -- roughly a dozen national television appearances by day's end.

Again and again, Meek accused Crist of cooking up the whole story.

``He will do anything to win, and if that's stepping on my back, so be it,'' Meek said after addressing hundreds of members of the teachers' union in Orlando. ``He's a hard-core politician. Don't let that smile on his face fool you.''

Meek also confirmed a bizarre story about Crist buzzing around Florida political circles -- that Crist offered him a cross and asked him to ``pray'' on whether to stay in the race. The venue: a American Israel Public Affairs Committee gathering Monday in Hollywood.

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Sink leads in new poll, Rubio remains steady - MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Alex Sink has a slight four-point lead in the race for governor over Republican Rick Scott, according to a poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University.

But with 11 percent undecided and nine percent saying they may change their mind, the governor's race seems headed to ``the finish line as a dead heat,'' said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The poll shows Sink leads Scott, 45-41. The previous Quinnipiac poll released Oct. 12 had Scott beating Sink, 45-44 percent.

In the Senate race, no major surprises. The poll shows Republican Marco Rubio is maintaning a steady lead against challengers, Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running independent of any party, and Democrat Kendrick Meek. Rubio is favored by 42 percent of voters, compared to Crist's 35 percent and Meek's 15 percent. The poll's margin of error: plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

``With his supporters less likely to change their minds than those of his two opponents, Marco Rubio is in the driver's seat with only five days to go until Election Day,'' Brown said.

The poll of 784 likely voters was conducted Oct. 18-24, a day before the controversy erupted over Sink receiving a smart phone Droid message during a commercial break in Monday's final gubernatorial debates. The two candidates had agreed not to allow such messages during the debate, which was broadcast live on CNN across the country.

The next day, the Droid phone gaffe went viral and has since consumed the campaign for governor.

Sink and Scott, both inexperienced campaigners, have been walking on eggshells for months to avoid an embarrassing gaffe that could damage their campaigns. Despite Sink's caution, the debate flap forced her to immediately removed Brian May, an unpaid political consultant, from the campaign. Meanwhile, Scott's campaign pounced on the issue, labeling it a cheating scam.

Sink has spent the last two days responding to the flap after debate moderater John King of CNN concluded that Sink knew what she was being sent. It took Sink's campaign two days to persuade the media -- by unwinding the video frame by frame -- that she did not realize why she was being handed the phone.

The Quinnipiac poll shows that independent voters in the governor's race continues to be the ones likely to make a difference on Election Day.

As of last week, 42 percent favored Sink and 37 percent favored Scott. But the survey also revealed that despite the anti-Washington sentiment, and the president's low approval ratings, a larger percentage of Republicans are fleeing to Sink -- 17 percent -- than Democrats are moving to Scott -- 8 percent.

One thing Sink does appear to have, however is a lock on the women vote, Brown said. The poll shows that 46 percent of women favor Sink while 38 percent favor Scott, while Scott has a slight 45-44 percent edge among men.

``Given that Ms. Sink would become Florida's first female governor, the lack of a larger gender gap is perhaps surprising,'' Brown said. ``She has some momentum, but anything can happen in the final days before Election Day.''

On the campaign trail, Scott was confident he would be victorious on Tuesday.

``If you look at the likely voters, and the absentee ballots and early voting, we're doing really well. We're going to win,'' he said.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com.

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More Haitians sickened by deadly cholera - MiamiHerald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The number of Haitians infected with cholera and cholera-like symptoms continued to mount Saturday as panic spread that the deadly disease could reach the quake-battered capital where thousands of people are living in unsanitary camps.

Meanwhile, government officials and international aid workers asked people to remain calm but stay vigilant and be sure to wash their hands with soap and stay out of rivers.

As of Friday evening, the Haitian government reported that 2,364 Haitians have been hospitalized for cholera throughout the affected Artibonite region in central Haiti, and 194 have died.The death toll was expected to rise. Partners in Health, or PIH, reported Saturday that the number of new cases at the hospital in St. Marc -- where the ill have gone to seek treatment -- on Friday was lower than new cases on Thursday. But with only three days of data, it isn't possible to say that this represents a positive trend, PIH said.

PIH also reported that at least 10 cases have been found in Gonaives, a port city in the Artibonite that's located 34 miles north of St. Marc.

The outbreak has raised questions about the presidential election scheduled Nov. 28. Haitian President René Préval says he wonders if the election, which would bring thousands of people closer together, might exacerbate the epidemic. He also raised the question of continuing a public election campaign that began eight days ago.

The country's worst fear is that the disease could reach the 1.5 million people living in about 1,000 unsanitary camps in Port-au-Prince and other cities ravaged by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

``We are very, very worried,'' said Claude Surena, a physician with Haiti's health ministry.

Health officials still are trying to figure out the cause of the outbreak. Workers say cases began showing up Tuesday, and many just assumed it was another bout of diarrhea in a country where that's common.

But they quickly realized it was something much worse because the death rate quickly climbed to 10 percent of the cases. On Friday, government health experts officially confirmed what they were seeing was the contagious and deadly disease.

The last known case of cholera in Haiti was in 1960, authorities said.

The outbreak is the worst medical crisis in Haiti since the Jan. 12 earthquake claimed up to 300,000 lives.

However, the disease didn't start in the tent cities, as many had feared. It happened along the central corridor, which was spared from the devastating quake.

The Ministry of Health declared the worst-affected areas were the towns of Drouin, Marchand Dessalines and areas around St. Marc, a port city 55 miles north of the capital.

In a matter of hours, mothers had lost children, husbands had lost wives and entire communities were grieving.

Meanwhile, the government and the international community have stepped up public awareness campaigns on best sanitation practices and started to deliver bottled water and bars of soap.

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Rand Paul will face Jack Conway in final debate after all - MiamiHerald.com

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul will participate in a debate Monday night on Kentucky Educational Television with his Democratic rival, Jack Conway.

Paul, who said earlier in the week that he was not sure if he would appear with Conway in the fifth and final scheduled debate before the Nov. 2 election, held a news conference Friday afternoon at the Lexington Hyatt Regency to discuss his decision.

Paul has expressed disappointment that Conway aired a TV ad that said Paul was in a secret group as a student in the 1980s at Baylor University that mocked Christianity.

It also alleged that Paul tied up a woman while in college and forced her to bow down to a god named “Aqua Buddha.”

The ad, which has drawn a mixed reception from Democrats, was based on articles in GQ magazine, The Washington Post and Politico.com in recent weeks and months.

Paul called the ad “all lies” and “completely untrue.” He ran a counter ad calling Conway “shameless” and his wife, Kelley Paul, held a news conference to criticize the ad.

Conway campaign spokesman John Collins said in an e-mail, “Jack will debate on Monday without any preconditions. The voters will see a clear choice - between Jack’s record of standing up for Kentuckians and Rand Paul who won’t.

“Rand has spent the last week hemming and hawing, demanding restrictions on what he’ll answer. Instead of having another tirade, Rand should show up and face the voters.”

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