nbc's kristin welker has the latest. >> good morning, alex.t appears that lisa murkowski is faring well this weekend, but all eyes will be on those contested ballots. those are ballots that the miller camp has contested, mostly for spelling errors in murkowski's last name. if at the end of this counting process there aren't enough contested ballots to make up the difference between miller and murkowski's lead, the miller camp is going to have a tough time building an argument that this should actually go to court. now, we got a bit of a surprise this week when representatives from the miller camp stepped forward and announced that they had been getting calls about possible voter fraud and possible voter intim date addition. when we pressed him for specifics, he couldn't really give any names or actual examples. the miller camp says they want to get to the bottom of these allegations. lisa murkowski has called this an act of desperation. so the count continues again this weekend. 15 teams of two counting all of these ballots. they were initiall

nbc's kristin welker with the latest. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. as the public outcry over the new security measures continues to grow, the head of the tsa is now saying there may be room for flexibility. this as 1.6 million people prepare to fly this holiday week. as airports around the nation begin to swell with holiday travelers, debate mounts about the new security measures. >> if one of us is asked to go through a full body scanner, we will simply turn around and leave the airport and go to amtrak. >> i think it is just another safety level that we have to go through so that we fly safely. >> reporter: just this morning, john pistole, head of the tsa said new procedures, full body scans and pat downs will stay in place. >> no, we are not changing the policies. >> reporter: this afternoon a clarification. the head of the tsa released a statement which reads in part -- this has always been viewed as an evolving program adapted as conditions warrant and we will work to make them as minimally invasive as possible. pistole's words after growing pub

. >>> nbc's kristin welker joins me from alaska. the count is ongoing ath this point.other roadblocks may still be in the way? >> good question, contessa. yesterday a representative with joe miller's campaign came forward and said they are going to file a second lawsuit in juneau asking for voter rolls. they want to compare the voter rolls to the ballots being cast. they are alleging that a lot of people are calling joe miller and saying they were victims of voter fraud or intimidation. when we pressed him on this issue they couldn't give any real examples. the representative did hand us the affidavit from someone named rocky mcdonald who was a poll watcher who had concerns on election day. the ballot box was unsecured. there are no actual allegations of voter fraud. we did a little bit of pressing about who rocky mcdonald is. he is a supporter of joe miller but the voting or the counting of the votes is going to get under way in about a half an hour. >>> republicans are celebrating their victories in the midterm election but voter reaction may be more subdued. less th

. >> nbc's kristin welker is live in juneau. how long is this going to take? >> reporter: andrea, it looks look it is going to take a little longer than expected. as you had predicted. they thought they would be finished counting on sunday. it looks like it will draw into next week. with half of the write-in ballots, lisa murkowski is getting 89% of the write-in ballots. 8% are going to her but being contested by the miller camp. for things like spelling problems, essentially. a bit of a bombshell yesterday. a representative from joe miller's campaign said they are filing suit in juneau. they would like to look at the voter rolls to compare the voter rolls against the ballots being counted. he went on to say a number of phone calls about possible voter fraud and voter intimidation. we pushed that representative who is named floyd brown, on actual examples and he couldn't deliver any. at this point in time it is an allegation. day three of counting these write-in ballots. >> floyd brown is the same floyd brown who brought us the willie horton ad. to be continue

. >> kristin welker is in juneau watching it all. count seems to be in murkowski's favor. is there any way if they exclude all of the contested ballots that she still wins? >> reporter: right now she would still win, contessa. even if you exclude all of those contest eed ballots. we'll have to see what would happen at the end of this counting which would go on the next several days. this is a list of all of those votes that were counted yesterday. 89%, overwhelming majority went to lisa murkowski. another 8% went to lisa murkowski. however, those 8% were contested by folks in the miller camp. folks who are saying, those votes were spelled incorrectly, eventually. the write-in ballots were spelled incorrectly. now, those contested ballots are going to be crucial. if this matter goes to court, those contested ballots will be reviewed first. as you mentioned, contessa, the miller camp has been arguing all along that spelling errors shouldn't be counted. however, officials with the division of elections say they are basing all of their d

>> kristin welker, thank you so much. >>> president obama versus palin or romney or mitch daniels. a new poll with stunning results. >>> how would you like to save eight grand a year? richard lui tells us how it's done. >> eight grand is big money. we've got the most common sense tips you'll be telling your friends about to keep more money in your pockets. >>> bieber fever, do you have it? it was infectious last night where justin bieber dominated the night. he won four trophies including favorite entertaining of the year. 16 years old, the youngest artist ever to win the ama's top honor and invited mentor and usher to the stage to share his moment. >> not only my mentor, but my best friend and my big brother. i love you, man. >> usher said she cried over his young protege's big wins. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t and blackberry have teamed up to keep your business moving. blackberry torch now just $99.99. only from at&t. rethink possible. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exx

>> kristin welker out in alaska for thus morning. thank you very much. >>> and now let's get a check of the rest of the morning's top stories. good morning ann. nice to have you back. >> thanks a lot. good morning, everybody. >>> we begin with a developing story in haiti. tropical storm tomas is strengthening this morning and it could hit haiti's western tip early tomorrow morning. the island nation could get up to as much as 10 inches of rain which could be devastating given that nearly 1.5 million people are still living under tents in the wake of january's massive earthquake. >>> the federal reserve is taking on a bold plan to pump $600 billion into the banking system trying to jolt the economy with lower interest rates. we've got cnbc's melissa francis at the new york stock exchange with more on this. this plan sounds aggressive but what are the risks? >> well, the risk is definitely inflation. that's always the risk when you pump lots of money into the economy and that's why ben bernanke is out this morning with an op-ed in "the