The long fight over the Senate race in Alaska is over, at least as far as the state courts are concerned.  The state Supreme Court told Joe Miller that it would not overturn the results of the election, and that the state followed the law properly in counting the write-in ballots that Lisa Murkowski received in beating Miller by over 10,000 votes.  The federal court gave Miller 48 hours to make a case on constitutional issues or withdraw and concede:

The Alaska Supreme Court today ruled against Joe Miller on all counts, a decision that leaves his challenge of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s victory on life support.

“There are no remaining issues raised by Miller that prevent this election from being certified,” the Supreme Court declared in its unanimous ruling.

US District Court Judge Ralph Bestline had issues an injunction against the state to prevent Murkowski’s certification until Miller exhausted his state-level appeals.  Bestline wants to make a decision by tomorrow on whether to continue the injunction or allow the state to issue the election certificate to Murkowski.  Timing is an issue, since the Senate will go into its new session in less than two weeks.  The Senator from Alaska has to have the certificate in order to join the upper chamber, regardless of whomever it is, at least under normal rules.

Miller has threatened to take his case to the US Supreme Court, but it’s difficult to see a federal case in this situation.  Miller alleges that the state didn’t follow state law by refusing to toss out handwritten votes that didn’t exactly match Lisa Murkowski’s name on her application.  However, courts have traditionally leaned towards honoring voter intent, even when that intent is arguable.  A federal court won’t overrule a state court’s interpretation of a state statute, especially where it involves accepting ballots, unless the plaintiff can make the case that the state’s actions amounted to a violation of the equal-treatment protection in the Constitution.

There doesn’t seem to be any such grounds for that argument for Miller here, and one might guess that Bestline’s 48-hour deadline signals that he doesn’t see any at the moment, either.  Even if Bestline was inclined to favor Miller on the theory of equal-protection violation, it would still have to be applied on a ballot-by-ballot basis.  With a 10,000 vote deficit, that remedy almost certainly wouldn’t win Miller the election anyway.  Anything short of a new election would leave Murkowski with more than enough votes to prevail.  Miller should just withdraw at this point and call it a day.