Three days before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s push to put a hold on Alaska’s U.S. Senate race just ran into resistance from a place his team might not have expected: Alaska’s own Republican-run state government.
On Saturday, the state attorney general’s office, headed by Republican acting Attorney General Cori Mills, urged a federal judge to throw out the Justice Department lawsuit filed at Trump’s direction, writing that there is “no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer,” according to the Associated Press.
What the Trump DOJ is asking for
The Justice Department’s complaint asks U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason to halt certification of the Senate race only in the event that Democrat Mary Peltola wins. The stated reason: to first determine whether voters were confused by a second candidate on the ballot who shares a name with Peltola’s main rival, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
On Friday, the department went further, asking the judge to separate every ballot showing a vote for the second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., until it can be determined whether voters were fooled into wasting their votes on a spoiler.
The complaint has been roundly criticized by election law experts, the AP reported.
Alaska: “Both disturbing and impossible”
In Saturday’s filing, Alaska called the ballot-separation demand “both disturbing and impossible,” saying there would be no way to do it without violating voter privacy.
The state also pointed out that the two Sullivans are clearly distinguished on the ballot: the senator is listed as a Republican and the incumbent, while the other appears simply as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.”
“State officials carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion,” the filing says. “The Court should 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 backstory
Judge Gleason had set a Saturday deadline for arguments on whether she should dismiss the case without even holding a hearing.
The fight escalated after The New York Times reported this week that internal texts and posts appear to show Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting the second Sullivan, a retired school teacher in the remote fishing village of Petersburg, onto the ballot. Trump then demanded that Peltola be prosecuted. Peltola has denied involvement, according to CBS News.
Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, has condemned the second Sullivan’s placement on the ballot and announced a state probe after the Times story. But the Alaska Supreme Court ruled this summer that the second candidate met every legal requirement to stay on the ballot, and the state’s filing says the new reports about the Peltola campaign’s possible role don’t change the fact that he is legally a candidate.
Why it matters
Alaska’s Senate race is one of the most closely watched in the country, and a Peltola win could help decide control of the chamber. Now the federal government is asking a court to freeze the result only if the Democrat wins, and the Republican officials who actually run Alaska’s elections are telling the judge to toss the whole thing out.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.