Not many people expect Joe Miller to pull it out.
The once-frontrunning candidate filed suit in state court yesterday seeking to prevent Alaska from certifying Sen. Lisa Murkowski as the victor in his Senate race, this following another lawsuit already filed in federal court on Nov. 9., both seeking to overturn write-in ballots cast for Murkowski in which the incumbent Republican's name is misspelled, the plan being to narrow her lead before asking for a recount.
Even if Miller succeeds in overturning 8,000+ write-in ballots, he would still trail by over 2,100 entering a recount, and it seems unlikely that such a recount would supply him with a win, despite the myriad election irregularities (including opened or stuffed ballot boxes, and a cluster of write-in ballots all filled out by the same person) that his camp is alleging.
It's not so infeasible for a statewide recount to swing things by a couple thousand votes, but with so few total votes cast in Alaska, Miller appears to be hoping for the improbable: He'd need the results to swing by over .8 percent of total votes cast.
Is it a good idea for Miller to be contesting these results to the bitter end, after Murkowski has declared victory, and after the Alaska Republican Party has already called on him to concede?