In new documents filed Friday afternoon, the Trump administration demanded that ballots be immediately segregated in its Alaska Senate runoff lawsuit and the Justice Department asked the judge to expedite its requests for Democrats to provide information about their efforts to recruit a spoilsport candidate into the race.
If there is a vote for Daniel J. Sullivan, the Justice Department wants it overturned.
The administration made the requests as the judge set a quick timeline that could resolve the case by Monday.
Judge Sharon Gleason is considering requests from Alaska election officials, Democrats and outside groups that she dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit, which seeks to delay certification of the election if incumbent Republican Party Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses, in order to investigate whether voter confusion caused his defeat.
In response to Alaska’s arguments that the administration is not presenting evidence that voters are confused by candidate Daniel J. Sullivan’s presence on the ballot, the DOJ said it is “common sense that a fake candidate on the ballot with the same name as the incumbent could cause voter confusion.”
Alaska elections officials had also noted that the administration had not clarified how exactly it would be determined, if Sen. Sullivan lost, that voter confusion led to his defeat.
“Defendants may take steps, including but not limited to ballot segregation, to ensure the integrity of Alaska’s election results, and this Court may order them to do so,” the DOJ said Friday afternoon.
The administration also said the judge should order the Democratic Senate campaign committee and the campaign for Rep. Mary Peltola, Sen. Sullivan’s Democratic challenger, to promptly comply with requests for a “tailor-made” investigation into whether Sullivan’s candidacy was “frivolous or fraudulent.”
Alaska’s Republican-led elections office — which tried to remove Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot but was stopped by the state Supreme Court several months ago — claimed that Daniel J.’s motivations for running were irrelevant to the legal debate over whether the federal government had the legal right to interfere with the certification.
The DOJ said the information it is seeking from Democrats “strikes at the heart of the United States’ claims.”
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