JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit. seeking to block certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, the latest development in an election controversy that has roiled the final days of one of the nation’s most closely watched races.
Sullivan, an ally of President Donald Trumpfaces the democrat Marie Peltola, a former congresswoman, in a race that is one of a handful expected to determine which party will control the Senate for the final two years of Trump’s term.
Tuesday’s preferential election also includes two candidates who campaigned little, one of whom shares the incumbent president’s name. It was the presence of this candidate on the ballot that prompted Trump to take legal action, for fear of siphoning votes from the outgoing president.
Shortly after the ruling, the Justice Department filed a notice announcing it would appeal: “Alaska voters deserve fair elections, and should not be misled into an attempt to rig the results,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.
The complaint, filed less than two weeks before the election and while early voting was underway, requested an investigation into whether votes for Dan J. Sullivan, retired teacher were intended for the senator. The state said the case lacked merit and argued there would be no way to determine it without violating voter privacy.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said the relief sought by the federal government was “unfeasible” because many voters have already cast ballots.
“More fundamentally, the United States offers no workable plan for how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct an unspecified, court-ordered ‘investigation’ of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy,” she wrote.
Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee argued that the case lacked legal merit and amounted to election interference.
“Today’s decision is a victory for democracy and a clear message to Donald Trump and Senate Republicans: No one, no matter how powerful, can reject a free and fair election simply because they don’t like the outcome,” said commission executive director Devan Barber.
Peltola’s campaign welcomed the move. “No false investigation or baseless prosecution from an armed Justice Department will stop Alaskans from electing Mary on November 3 so she can lower costs for Alaska’s working families,” the campaign said in a statement, referring to a federal investigation revealed after President Donald Trump said last week that he wanted Peltola prosecuted for the diagram.
State attorneys did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Senator says he expects to ‘lose a lot of votes’ to fellow Dan Sullivan
The senator and his allies, including Trump, have been playing Dan J. Sullivan for months. as a false candidate with the intention of confusing voters and helping Peltola.
Earlier Sunday, Senator Sullivan told CNN that he believed the second Sullivan’s presence on the ballot would affect the election.
“I’m sure I’m going to lose a lot of votes because of this deception,” he said.
He also said he doubted Peltola’s claims that she had no idea his top political aides were involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan to run in order to confuse voters.
“There’s no way this could have gone on for a year without them notifying him,” Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “She was caught lying, and she’s still lying to the people of Alaska, the media and all of us.”
In the week leading up to Election Day, The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign was involved in efforts to recruit the second Sullivan. Shortly after participating in the race in June, Dan J. Sullivan said he had no contact with his campaign about running. He has not responded to several messages in recent days.
His recent public absence prompted the president to post on social media on Sunday: “Fake Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., is MISSING! No one can find him, including law enforcement.”
Peltola’s campaign responded to the Times article by saying it was not involved in any of Sullivan’s campaigns: “I’m not interested in misleading voters,” Peltola said. at a recent campaign event.
In its statement indicating its intention to appeal, the Justice Department said the federal judge had dismissed the case on procedural grounds but did not dispute the government’s argument that Dan J. Sullivan entered the race “as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters.”
Several investigations into whether Dan J. Sullivan was recruited as a decoy candidate
State courts, including the Alaska Supreme Courtrejected an earlier Republican-backed attempt to keep the retired teacher from August’s open primary ballot, in which he appeared as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. The senator was Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican and incumbent.
Both Sullivans appear the same on the general election ballot. Peltola placed first in the primary, followed by Senator. Dan J. Sullivan received approximately 2.5% of the primary vote, but it was enough to finish in the top four and qualify for the November 3 choice election.
Attorneys with the Alaska Department of Law represented state election officials in the case and asked Gleason, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, to drop the lawsuit. They filed a scathing response to the federal government’s complaint, calling it “baseless.”
Alaska also said the state took “significant steps” to distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot. Voters who might still be confused could ask for help or look for candidate biographies and other information in election brochures distributed by the state.
Republicans, including those working with Trump, also a long history of supporting decoy candidates in the elections. The governor, a Republican, ordered an investigation and suggested he might not certify a possible Peltola victory.
In his ruling, Gleason wrote that the Trump administration’s attempt to block certification went against the Constitution, which gives states the power to conduct elections. She also cited the Supreme Court’s Purcell principle, which says federal courts generally should not change election rules too close to an election.
Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP, which filed a brief in favor of dismissing the case, called the judge’s decision “a big victory for Alaska voters.”
“The law is clear and the DOJ’s filing is a baseless, last-minute attempt to hijack these midterm elections,” she said.
On Thursday, the Justice Department intensified criminal investigation on Dan J. Sullivan’s presence on the ballot in Alaska, issuing a series of new grand jury subpoenas, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The FBI also began contacting people who donated to it, some of whom told the AP that agents asked if they had been misled about which candidate they supported.
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Riccardi reported from Washington. Associated Press photographer Lindsey Wasson in Anchorage, Alaska, and AP writer Ali Swenson in Washington contributed to this report.
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