Joe Miller hopes to make a comeback in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race when the Division of Elections today starts counting more than 30,500 absentee and early ballots.

Alaskans cast 13,439 more write-in ballots on last week’s Election Day than they voted for Republican nominee Miller. Miller hopes that today’s absentee count will help him narrow that gap. Miller told CNN’s John King on Monday that he’s “cautiously optimistic” he will end up winning the race.

The vast majority of the 83,201 write-ins are expected to be for incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The Division of Elections on Wednesday in Juneau will start the process of opening the write-in ballots to see how many of them actually have Murkowski’s name.

Both sides have gathered legal teams to monitor the ballot counts and prepare for a possible court challenge.