Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign sued Alaska elections officials Friday seeking access to documents related to mail-in ballots from Tuesday’s general election, claiming the state is violating Alaska’s public records law.
“The campaign ensures transparency, timeliness and accuracy as the counting process continues and the voice of every Alaskan is heard,” the Peltola campaign said in a statement about the lawsuit.
The Alaska Department of Justice did not respond to the complaint, but said in a statement Friday afternoon that state law does not require disclosure of the information and that the agency plans to fight in court to have the information protected.
The Peltola campaign is “seeking access to preliminary absentee ballot information” that shows whether absentee ballots for specific individuals are likely to be accepted or rejected – preliminary data that the division has long treated as confidential, said the statement provided by Justice Department spokesperson Sam Curtis.
The trial comes amid a closely watched U.S. Senate election that has become increasingly contentious in recent weeks.
Peltola, a former congresswoman, leads by 637 votes over Sen. Dan Sullivan, a two-term Republican incumbent, with more than 215,000 ballots counted so far.
The Elections Division is still waiting for tens of thousands of ballots to be counted, some of which have not yet arrived. The winner of the race may not be known until November 18, when the ranking of picks is due to take place, and certification of the race is scheduled for November 25.
Yet both Peltola’s and Sullivan’s campaigns released statements on the road to victory, explaining how their side would emerge victorious.
(Trump speaks out on tight US Senate race in Alaska as thousands of ballots yet to be counted)
The Alaskans for Mary campaign filed a seven-page complaint against the Alaska Division of Elections; its director, Carol Beecher; and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who oversees the division. The case is before Judge Thomas Matthews in Anchorage Superior Court.
According to the lawsuit, the Division of Elections denied the Peltola campaign’s requests, first made Oct. 27 to the agency’s regional office. offices, to receive a copy of the absentee register showing the “acceptance or rejection code” of absentee ballots returned in the election, or other documents showing the identity of voters and the reason their ballots were rejected.
Peltola’s campaign “cannot guarantee that its voters’ legal votes were correctly counted without knowing which mail-in ballots were rejected or questioned, and why,” the complaint states. “With absentee ballot counting and review by the questioned voting board currently underway, and certification deadlines rapidly approaching, every hour and day that Defendants deny Plaintiff the requested materials to which he is entitled costs Plaintiff the opportunity to help ensure that qualified voters have their ballots counted.”
The lawsuit accuses the division of violating Alaska’s public records law “by denying, obstructing, and attempting to obstruct” the campaign’s inspection of public records.
“No Alaska law protects the requested information from disclosure,” according to the campaign’s requests, which are attached as exhibits to the complaint.
The campaign is not “seeking any confidential personal information” and this information is needed to “ensure an accurate vote count,” the requests state.
The Alaska Department of Justice said in its statement that the lawsuit requests copies of daily records before that information is final and made available to voters themselves.
“During the mail-in review process, authorized observers may view certain daily records under confidentiality agreements,” the agency said. “Because the information is preliminary, subject to change, and not yet available to affected voters, the Division does not distribute records separately or allow observers to retain them.”
“The Alaska Constitution and laws do not require the Division to provide this information in the manner requested by the campaign,” the agency said. “Release of preliminary information in the manner sought by the lawsuit would create additional burdens in processing the ballot and could delay the timely counting of votes. The Division has protected this information for years and will ask the court to protect it as well.”
The Sullivan campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Peltola campaign’s lawsuit follows a federal case filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice, at the behest of President Donald Trump, which seeks to prevent the race from being certified if Sen. Sullivan narrowly loses.
That lawsuit, dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge in Alaska last weekend, further sought to separate the ballots for a possible investigation into whether votes cast for namesake challenger Dan J. Sullivan — a retired Petersburg educator who received 1.7 percent of the vote in the most recent results — were intended for the incumbent president.
The federal government has appealed that case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the court is not expected to have briefings of both sides until Jan. 11, well after Alaska’s election results are certified and more than a week after the new senators are sworn in.
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