Alaska Senate race: US judge dismisses Trump administration's bid to block certification if Dan Sullivan loses

A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a US Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Alaska's Senate election if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.

The ruling comes just days before an election that could help determine which party controls the US Senate. Sullivan, an ally of President Donald Trump, is facing former US Representative Peltola in one of the country's closely watched races.

The Tuesday election will use ranked-choice voting and also features two candidates who have done little campaigning. One of them shares the incumbent senator's name.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit less than two weeks before the election, while early voting was already underway. It sought an investigation into whether votes cast for retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan were actually intended for the Republican senator.

Alaska officials argued that the lawsuit lacked merit and that determining voters' intentions would be impossible without compromising ballot secrecy.

US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said in her order that the relief sought by the government was “infeasible” because many voters had already cast their ballots. Those ballots had been commingled to the extent that the identity of the individuals who cast them could no longer be determined.

“More fundamentally, the United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified “investigation” of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy,” she wrote.

Why is the Alaska Senate election facing a ‘decoy candidate’ controversy?

The lawsuit is linked to allegations that Democratic candidate Mary Peltola and her campaign were involved in recruiting a retired schoolteacher named Dan Sullivan to enter the Senate race, potentially confusing voters.

Republican Senator Dan Sullivan said on Sunday that he doubted Peltola's claims that she had no knowledge of her senior political aides' alleged involvement in recruiting the second candidate.

Republicans have long suspected that Peltola and her campaign were behind the other Sullivan's presence on the ballot. Their suspicions were reinforced by a New York Times report published last week, which cited interviews with Peltola's former campaign manager, text messages and campaign finance documents. The report said an operative attempting to recruit decoy candidates had been paid by a group supporting Peltola.

“There is no way this went on for a year that they weren’t informing her,” Sullivan told CNN's “State of the Union,” two days before Election Day. “She got caught lying, and she’s still lying to the Alaskan people, the media, to all of us.”

Peltola has denied any involvement in recruiting the other Sullivan. She has described the attention surrounding the issue as a “distraction” from the main concerns facing Alaskans, including high prices caused by the war in Iran launched by Republican Donald Trump.

Her campaign has also denied involvement, as has the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the national Democratic organisation focused on Senate races.

Before a rally on Friday, Peltola was asked whether someone from her campaign could have been involved in recruiting the other candidate.

“I have no idea,” she told KTUU. “I honestly have no idea.”

The second candidate is listed on the ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., while the senator appears as Dan S. Sullivan and is identified as the Republican incumbent. The retired teacher has maintained that he entered the race on his own accord.

Trump calls for prosecution as federal agents investigate

Trump had directed his Justice Department to file a lawsuit seeking to stop certification of a possible Peltola victory. After the New York Times report was published, he also called for the Democratic candidate to be prosecuted.

Federal agents subsequently arrived in Alaska and issued subpoenas as part of the investigation. However, Republicans, including those working with Trump, have also had a long history of supporting decoy candidates in elections.

Alaska's Republican governor has ordered an investigation and suggested he may not certify a possible Peltola victory.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who leads the Republican group focused on Senate races, said on NBC's “Meet the Press” that criminal charges could be justified.

"We know that it is criminal for candidates to work in collusion with other parties to confuse voters,” he said.

Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, said candidates sharing names with other people on the ballot was something that “happens all over the place”. However, he said promoting such a strategy was not something he would support.

“It’s stupid politics,” he told NBC. “Nobody would do that, and Mary Peltola has said she had nothing to do with it.”

Senator Bernie Sanders also weighed in on the controversy. The Vermont independent said on CBS' “Face the Nation”:

“What the Democrats did in Alaska seems to me to be pretty dumb," the Vermont independent said on CBS' “Face the Nation.” "It’s not illegal. It’s what happens in every election.”

Sullivan, a former Alaska attorney general, said he would “let the lawyers” determine whether any crimes had been committed. He also said he believed the second candidate's presence on the ballot would affect the outcome.

“I’m sure I’m going to lose a lot of votes to that trickery,” Sullivan said.

Asked whether he would urge state officials not to certify a Peltola victory, Sullivan initially declined to give a direct answer before saying, "I'm going to accept the results of the election.”

Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola campaign ahead of Election Day

Both candidates spent the final days of the campaign travelling across Alaska's vast landscape.

On Saturday night, Sullivan handed out candy at a “trunk-or-treat” event at a recreation centre north of Anchorage. He joked that his costume was “the real Dan Sullivan.”

(With AP inputs)

About the Author

For about a decade, Livemint—News Desk has been a credible source for authentic and timely news, and well-researched analysis on national news, business, personal finance, corporates, politics and geopolitics. We bring the latest updates on all the listed companies on BSE and NSE, startups, mutual funds, Union ministries, geopolitics, and untapped human interest stories from around the world, helping our readers to stay informed on the latest developments around the globe. Our Coverage Areas 1. Companies: Comprehensive news and analysis on listed and unlisted companies, corporate announcements, corporate chatter, C-suite, business trends, hiring alerts, layoffs, work-life balance, world's top billionaires and richest and more. 2. Personal finance: Insights into mutual funds, small savings schemes like - PPF, SSY, post office savings scheme, stock to watch, personal loans, credit cards, top bank FDs, real estate, income tax and more. 3. Politics: Comprehensive coverage of general elections, state elections and bypolls, Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, Parliament, PMO, PIB, finance ministry, home ministry, among other union ministries and government departments. 4. National News: From metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and e to untapped stories from rural India, we cover human interest, health, education, crime and courts, and law and order, among other areas of public interest. 5. Economy: In-depth analysis of India's macro and micro-economic indicators like- GDP, inflation, forex, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, interest rate cycle, economic recovery, RBI circulars, indirect taxes, GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy imports, exports and everything that impacts Indian economy. 6. Geopolitics: Well-rounded and deeply researched coverage on US News, Oval Office European Union, Ukraine Russia War, middle-east crisis, royal families and global leaders like - Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping and premiers of other leading economies in the world. Meet the Team 1. Gulam Jeelani, Political Affairs Editor 2. Sugam Singhal, Senior Assistant Editor 3. Chanchal, Assistant Editor 4. Sanchari Ghosh, Chief Content Producer 5. Pratik Prashant Mukane, Chief Content Producer 6. Sayantani Biswas, Chief Content Producer 7. Ravi Hari, Deputy Chief Content Producer 8. Garvit Bhirani, Deputy Chief Content Producer 9. Akriti Anand, Senior Content Producer 10. Jocelyn Felix Fernandes, Senior Content Producer 11. Swastika Das Sharma, Content Producer 12. Mausam Jha, Content Producer 13. Riya R Alex, Trainee Content Producer