Alaska's unusual and very tight three-way U.S. Senate race--in which incumbent Liz Murkowski lost the Republican primary to pro-life Joe Miller but is mounting a write-in campaign--has become even more complicated.

After Murkowski lost the August Republican primary to Miller, rather than conceding her loss, Murkowski continued to campaign as a write-in candidate against Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams. However, in order to be counted, votes cast for "Lisa Murkowski" must be spelled fairly accurately, which would be ensured if voters could copy it from a list, according to the Los Angeles Times.

From left, Scott McAdams, the Democratic candidate in Alaska; the Republican write-in candidate, Lisa Murkowski; and the official Republican candidate, pro-life Joe Miller.

Both the Alaska Democratic and Republican parties filed suit when they discovered that the state Division of Elections had distributed such a list of certified write-in candidates to all polling places and officials were showing it to voters, in apparent violation of long-standing procedures, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The state Division of Elections even has a regulation stating that information regarding a write-in candidate "may not be discussed, exhibited, or provided at the polling place, or within 200 feet of any entrance to the polling place," the AP reported.

Several commentators encouraged citizens to add their name to this list as a protest move, claiming that officials had never before provided voters with a list of write-in candidates at polling places. October 28 was the deadline for potential write-in candidates to submit a "letter of intent" to elections officials and to provide the name that would be able to be counted when written down by voters, according to the Associated Press (AP). The AP reported that the list of write-in candidate list has grown from only a few to over 160.

On October 29 the state Supreme Court ruled that the list could be provided to voters who have a specific need to see it. The following day four Alaska voters filed a federal lawsuit, the AP reported.

The voters' lawsuit claims that "in providing lists, the state has changed its rules for holding elections and did so without receiving the required approval of the U.S. Department of Justice," according to the AP.

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