Judge dismisses Trump attempt to block Alaska Senate race results if Republican loses

A judge has dismissed the Donald Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska’s US Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses.

Trump said on 23 October that he had ordered the justice department to file the lawsuit in a move that voting rights experts called an “unprecedented intervention” by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance.

The justice department argued in its lawsuit, filed less than two weeks before election day, that there could be “voter confusion” over the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the November ballot, which Republicans fear could take away votes from the incumbent and influence the race’s outcome in favor of the Democratic nominee, Mary Peltola.

Sullivan, in an interview with CNN on Sunday morning, said that he would accept the results of his upcoming election.

According to a recent New York Times investigation, aides from Peltola’s campaign recruited another man who shared Sullivan’s name to join the race in a ploy to peel away votes from the Republican incumbent.

Since those revelations, Republicans, including Donald Trump, have called for Peltola to be disqualified from the race and criminally prosecuted. Peltola has continued to deny any knowledge of such a scheme on the part of her campaign, recently telling a reporter at a campaign event that she had “no idea” if any of her staff were involved.

Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would only accept the election results if he won, Sullivan responded: “No, I’m going to accept the election results.”

Earlier in his interview with Tapper, Sullivan also said he wasn’t focused on how Peltola’s campaign might be legally challenged. He was focused instead on winning the race outright. He nonetheless expressed doubt that Peltola had lacked any knowledge of the effort to put a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

“She’s continually lying to the Alaskan people,” Sullivan said. “And I guarantee you, she’s lying right now.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Republicans tried to boost unviable Democratic candidates in the Alaska primaries as well. A Republican Super Pac boosted two candidates for Senate who did not live in Alaska, and praised them as “progressives” similar to Bernie Sanders.