Photo: Paxson Woelber, The Alaska Landmine, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons. File photo of the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, not a photo of the election proceedings.
The US Justice Department stepped up its intervention in Alaska's Senate race on Friday, days before Tuesday's midterm election, accelerating a criminal investigation into a candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent and asking a court to isolate ballots cast for him.
The moves thrust federal prosecutors into one of the handful of Senate contests that will decide control of the chamber, in a state where voters use ranked-choice ballots and where the two men at the centre of the dispute are both listed as Dan Sullivan.
The race pits two-term Republican Senator Dan Sullivan against Democratic former Representative Mary Peltola. Also on the ballot is Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg, whose candidacy federal prosecutors say risks confusing voters and siphoning support from the incumbent.
What the Justice Department asked for
Alaska US Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters in Anchorage on Friday that a criminal investigation into the second Sullivan's candidacy had been under way for several months, but that recent revelations in The New York Times about Peltola's campaign's apparent involvement in recruiting him had resulted in a "significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska."
Separately, the department asked a federal judge to order state election officials to preserve and segregate ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan, so investigators could examine whether those rankings were the product of voter confusion. The filing said the government "seeks to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary," and asked for a decision by Monday, the day before Election Day.
Department lawyers argued there was a "substantial risk" that the second Sullivan's candidacy "will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity." The department is also pursuing a civil lawsuit, filed on October 22 and amended on Thursday, that seeks to block certification of the result if Senator Sullivan loses and would have won had votes for Daniel J. Sullivan gone to him instead. President Donald Trump has said he instigated that civil lawsuit.
How two Dan Sullivans ended up on the ballot
Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. filed for the Senate race in late May. Alaska's Division of Elections initially disqualified him in June, concluding his declaration of candidacy was filed not in good faith but with a purpose to confuse or mislead voters, noting he had asked to appear on the ballot as "Dan Sullivan" and had switched his registration to Republican two days before filing.
State courts reversed that disqualification, ruling the division had applied a "good faith" test found nowhere in Alaska law, and the Alaska Supreme Court upheld his reinstatement in June, allowing him to remain in the race. The state's official sample ballot tries to draw the distinction: the retired teacher appears as "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr." without a party designation, while the incumbent is listed as "Sullivan, Dan S.," identified as a registered Republican and as the incumbent senator.
The Justice Department's amended complaint draws heavily on a New York Times report about a "Ballot Composition Project," alleging Peltola's team worked with people trying to recruit another candidate named Dan Sullivan to confuse voters. The department itself acknowledged the limits of that sourcing, writing that although what the Times reports is not always true, its reporting here aligns with what the United States has been alleging. No court has ruled that the recruitment effort broke any law.
Peltola denied on Thursday that she knew anything about the effort to put Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot, saying: "I am not interested in tricking voters." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has repeatedly denied involvement in any trick, and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. has long denied he was running at Democrats' behest, telling The Associated Press in June that he had no contact with Peltola's campaign. The department also accused the campaign and the committee of misleading the court in a filing; they called that accusation "nonsense" in their own motion.
A wider election-season fight
Friday's developments in Alaska came on the same day a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials who do not comply with its demands over alleged non-citizen voting, in a ruling days before the midterms. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected a department request for California to set aside disputed ballots sent to some 20,000 people the administration contends may not be US citizens.
Alaska has asked US District Judge Sharon Gleason to rule by Monday on the state's renewed bid to dismiss the department's case. With early voting already nearing 50 million ballots nationwide, a record for a midterm, the Alaska dispute is now on a collision course with Election Day itself: a ruling on Monday, voting on Tuesday, and the possibility of a certification fight afterwards if the result is close enough for the second Sullivan's votes to matter.
Sources: Reuters; Associated Press via Economic Times; Alaska News; Law Commentary.