Judge blocks federal bid to freeze Alaska Senate vote over name dispute

A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice that sought to block the certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses. The legal challenge was triggered by the presence of a second candidate, retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., whose name closely mirrors that of the sitting senator. This dispute has cast a shadow over one of the nation’s most closely watched elections, where Senate control is at stake.

The conflict centers on ranked-choice voting rules in the Tuesday election, which allow voters to rank multiple candidates. The Justice Department argued that an investigation was necessary to determine if votes cast for the retired teacher were intended for the senator. The state of Alaska contested the case, arguing it lacked merit and that determining voter intent would violate the secrecy of the ballot. With early voting already underway when the suit was filed, the legal maneuver raised questions about the practicality of sorting ballots after the fact.

The timeline of the dispute began last week when a New York Times report alleged that Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting the decoy candidate. The report cited interviews, text messages, and campaign finance documents showing that an operative was paid by a group backing Peltola. In response, President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice to file the lawsuit. Federal agents subsequently issued subpoenas in the matter, and the Republican governor of Alaska ordered an investigation, suggesting he might refuse to certify a Peltola victory.

In her order, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason wrote that the relief sought by the United States was infeasible because many voters had already cast their ballots. She noted that the cast ballots had been commingled to the point where the identity of the person who cast each ballot could not be determined. Gleason stated that the government provided no workable plan to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct an investigation that would preserve voter secrecy.

Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola has insisted she had nothing to do with recruiting the other Sullivan. She described the attention on the name overlap as a distraction from the main issues facing Alaskans, specifically high prices caused by the war in Iran. Her campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have both denied involvement. Before a rally Friday, Peltola told KTUU, "I have no idea," when asked if it was possible someone on her campaign was involved in recruiting the other candidate.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, a former Alaska attorney general and ally of President Trump, said Sunday that he doubted claims by Peltola that she was unaware of the situation. Sullivan told CNN's State of the Union that he was sure he would lose votes to the situation. He said, "I'm sure I'm going to lose a lot of votes to that trickery," but added that he would accept the results of the election. He noted that the second Sullivan is listed on the ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., while the senator is listed as Dan S. Sullivan and marked as a Republican incumbent.

The second Sullivan, who has long insisted he ran on his own accord, has become a focal point in the final days of the campaign. Sullivan handed out candy at a trunk-or-treat event Saturday night north of Anchorage, where he quipped his costume was "the real Dan Sullivan." The race includes two other candidates who have done little campaigning, adding to the complexity of the ranked-choice ballot.

Political figures on both sides have weighed in on the legality of the strategy. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who heads the GOP Senate campaign group, said on NBC's Meet the Press that criminal charges might make sense. "We know that it is criminal for candidates to work in collusion with other parties to confuse voters," Scott said. Conversely, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., called the strategy "stupid politics" but noted that candidates with the same name on ballots happens all over the place.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, agreed with Raskin on CBS's Face the Nation. "What the Democrats did in Alaska seems to me to be pretty dumb," Sanders said. "It’s not illegal. It’s what happens in every election." The dismissal of the federal lawsuit leaves the state-level processes and the governor’s investigation as the primary mechanisms for addressing the name dispute before and after the Tuesday election.