Gleason dismisses Justice Department bid to delay Alaska Senate certification

Justice Department says it will appeal Alaska ballot ruling

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking to delay certification of Alaska’s Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, who is running for re-election, lost. The case involved a three-way race between Dan S. Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola. Gleason ruled that the federal government did not have authority to force Alaska to segregate and investigate any ballots in the race.

The Justice Department’s suit argued that having two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the ballot could cause “voter confusion” and take support from incumbent Republican Dan S. Sullivan. The issue before Gleason was whether the federal government could force Alaska to segregate and investigate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan before certification if Dan S. Sullivan lost.

In the ruling, Gleason wrote: “The United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified ‘investigation’ of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy.”

Gleason also said Alaska voters have the right to a secret ballot. She said the proposed federal action would be too late because it came only days before the midterm election. Many voters had already cast ballots through early voting and postal voting.

After the ruling, the Justice Department said it would file to appeal. In a statement, the department said the court dismissed the federal case on “procedural grounds but did not dispute the argument of the United States that Daniel J. Sullivan (a/k/a Decoy Dan) entered the race as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters”. It continued: “Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes.”

Asked about the lawsuit last month, President Donald Trump said he had directed the Justice Department to file it. Trump told reporters: “All of a sudden he decides to run for the Senate, and his name is Dan Sullivan. One is Daniel S., one is Daniel J. The Daniel J. is the fake.”

Daniel J. Sullivan was a little-known candidate running with no party affiliation. He had previously told The New York Times that he had voted both Democrat and Republican in the past. Incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan and his allies have accused the Democrats of trying to confuse voters.

Then last week, controversy erupted when The New York Times reported that Democrats on Peltola’s team worked with people who tried to recruit spoiler candidates in the Senate race. A BBC News related item reported that an Alaska Senate candidate denied knowing about an alleged plot to put two Dan Sullivans on the ballot. Peltola denied knowing about an alleged “scheme” that led to the two Dan Sullivans standing in the race.

Other related BBC News coverage reported that Alaska’s governor had ordered a probe into the Democratic campaign’s alleged links to the same-name candidate. The coverage said Peltola had paused her midterm campaigning after a car crash.

Analysts considered the Alaska Senate contest one of the tightest in the upcoming Tuesday U.S. midterm elections, which will decide which party controls Congress for the last two years of Trump’s presidency.