Early voting began in mid-October. On October 20th, a voter in Homer noticed that a list of write-in candidates was posted inside the voting booth. The voter took a picture of the notice and reported the incident to both the City of Homer and the Alaska Democratic Party. While city workers maintained that posting the list in the booth was a misunderstanding, there was soon more attention on the broader issue of whether the state should be providing such a list at all, and a lawsuit was filed alleging that the Alaska Division of Elections was violating the law, specifically AAC, 25.070,which reads in part: "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, on election day." Both Republican and Democratic spokespersons decried the lists as electioneering on behalf of Murkowski, while representatives of the Division of Elections maintained that the lists were intended merely to assist voters. On Wednesday October 27 a judge issued a restraining order barring the lists, noting in his decision "If it were important 'assistance' for the Division to provide voters with lists of write-in candidates, then the Division has been asleep at the switch for the past 50 years, the Division first developed the need for a write-in candidate list 12 days ago." Later on the same day the Alaska Supreme Court issued a new ruling that the lists could be distributed to those who asked for them, but that any ballots cast by voters based on information on the lists be "segregated." The Division of Elections responded that they had neither the manpower nor the time to implement such a system by Election Day. By close of business on Thursday, October 28, over 60 new write in candidates had submitted their names for the race, encouraged by an Anchorage talk radio host.
