US govt ramps up probe in Alaska over spoiler Senate candidate claim

ANCHORAGE: Federal officials investigating claims that Democrats recruited a man with the same name as the Republican Senate candidate in Alaska in a bid to confuse voters in the US midterm elections said on Friday they were flooding the northwestern state with resources.

The announcement came as Donald Trump and his surrogates continued to sow doubt over the integrity of Tuesday's polls, in which the president's party is expected to perform poorly.

"Every Alaskan deserves a fair election, and they're going to get one," US Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters in Anchorage.

"Federal and state law enforcement, including both the Alaska State Troopers on my right and the FBI on my left, are working to make sure that your vote counts in a way that you meant and intended it to count."

Heyman said criminal and civil investigations were running in parallel, sparked in part by claims in The New York Times that aides to Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola had secretly recruited "spoiler" candidates — including one named Dan Sullivan, like the Republican incumbent.

"This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska, and I have assigned several attorneys in my office to assist in the matter as well."

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Heyman repeatedly refused to specify what crime may have been committed or under which statute the investigation had been launched.

But his comments came after Trump labelled the scheme a "fraud" and called for Peltola's prosecution.

The New York Times' investigation noted that recruiting candidates to split an opponent's vote — a practice known as ballot stacking — is generally legal and has been used by both parties in Alaska.

Polls show Republicans are on track to lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate, where the Alaska result could be pivotal, with voters angered by the rising cost of living, perceived presidential grift and Trump's war on Iran.

Trump, who still refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 presidential election, frequently blames his defeats on corruption and cheating by his opponents.

In recent weeks, the administration and its allies have launched a series of investigations that observers say appear aimed at sowing doubt over the election, including in California, where the government claims there are tens of thousands of non-Americans on the voting rolls.

Studies have repeatedly found that fraud occurs at very low levels in US elections, particularly in cases involving non-citizens voting, and does not affect the outcomes.