Alaska officials ask judge to deny Trump administration’s ‘impossible’ demand to set aside Senate ballots

The Republican-led state government in Alaska implored a federal judge on Saturday to permanently dismiss the Trump administration’s lawsuit that seeks to block the certification of the Alaska Senate race if GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses.

“The United States’ opposition provides no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer,” the filing said, adding that “the relief demanded is inappropriate and not even possible given Alaskan voters’ vital right to ballot secrecy.”

The filing from Alaska officials comes just three days before Election Day and as the judge is expected to rule soon on whether to dismiss the lawsuit or continue with it.

The Trump administration has claimed that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting a retired teacher with the same name as Sullivan to run in the race, creating confusion that it says will unfairly take away votes intended for the incumbent. Peltola has denied the allegations.

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit Oct. 22 against local election officials, arguing that the results of the competitive Senate race should not be certified unless Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is declared the winner.

Alaska officials on Saturday criticized the legal basis on which the Trump administration has argued it has standing to intervene in the election, as election certification is left up to the states.

The filing noted that the Alaska Supreme Court approved the second Sullivan’s name to be on the ballot months ago and added that “state officials carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion.”

Alaska officials also took aim at the Justice Department’s proposal of “segregating” ballots that rank Dan J. Sullivan, writing, “this unexplained idea makes no sense.”

“No matter how the ballots are physically stored, it will be easy to tell which ballots rank Daniel J.,” the filing said. “If the United States means something different — as it seems to — its ballot segregation proposal is both disturbing and impossible.”

The Alaska attorney general’s office asked the judge to “immediately dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice and allow state officials to conduct the general election — including ballot counting and certification — free from unwarranted federal interference.”

The Trump administration amended its complaint this week to cite new reporting from The New York Times, which alleged that Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan and that Peltola herself was aware of the situation. The Times story citied a former campaign manager who later attempted to retract her statements.

At a rally Friday night, Peltola told a crowd of her supporters that she was “so deeply offended by these accusations about having any involvement with anyone else’s candidacy.”

“I want fewer candidates in the primary. I’m not out soliciting more competition,” Peltola said, adding she did “not need any help” defeating Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.

Sen. Dan S. Sullivan took aim at Peltola in a Fox News interview on Saturday, saying that “there’s no way Peltola doesn’t know about” the scheme to recruit Dan J. Sullivan.

“It’s deception. But at its worst, it’s disdain for us Alaskans,” he said. “Think about what they did. They’re trying to make sure that Alaskans throw away their vote.”